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THE LIFE 



Rear Admiral John Paul Jones. 



JOHN S. C. ABBOTT. 




NEW YORK : 

DODD & Mead, Publishers, 
762 Broadway. 



''AMERICAN PIOI^EMRS AND PATRIOTS. 



THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES 



REAR-ADMIRAL JOHN PAUL JONES, 



COMMONLY CALLED 



Pau L Jones. 



JOHN S. C. ABBOTT. 



I LLXJSTR J^TED. 



/^'^r 



NEW YORK: i 
DODD & MEAD, PUBLISHERS, 
762 BROADWAY. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S74, by 

DODD & MEAD, 
n the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. 



THE OFFICERS AND SEAMEN OF THE UNITED STATES NAVY, 



THIS VOLUME, 



COMMEMORATIVE OF THE HEROIC ACHIEVEMENTS OF ONE OF THE MOST 



ILLUSTRIOUS OF THKIR NUMBER, IS RESPECTFULLY 



DEDICATED BY 



JOHN S. C. ABBOTT. 



Faxr Haven, Conn., 1874. 



PREFACE 



I COMMENCED writing the Life of Paul Jones with 
the impression, received from early reading, that 
he was a reckless adventurer, incapable of fear, and 
whose chief merit consisted in performing deeds of 
desperate daring. But I rise from the careful exam- 
ination of what he has written, said, and done, with 
the conviction that I had misjudged his character. 
I now regard him as one of the purest and most 
enlightened of patriots, and one of the noblest of 
men. His name should be enrolled upon the same 
scroll with those of his intimate friends, Washing- 
ton, Jefferson, Franklin, and Lafayette. 

As this exhibition of the character of Admiral 
Jones is somewhat different from that which has 
been presented in current literature, I have felt the 
necessity of sustaining the narrative by the most 
unquestionable documentary evidence. Should any 



VI ^ PREFACE. 

one, in glancing over the pages, see that the admiral 

is presented in a different light from that in which 

he has been accustomed to view him, I must beg 

him, before he condemns the narrative, to examine 

the proof which I think establishes every statement. 

The admiral had his faults. Who has not ? 

But on the whole he was one of nature's noblemen. 

His energies were sincerely and intensely devoted 

to the good of humanity. He was ambitious. But 

it was a noble ambition, to make his life sublime. 

He was a man of pure lips and of unblemished Hfe. 

His chosen friends were the purest, the most exalted, 

the best of men. He had no low vices. Gambling, 

drinking, carousing, were abhorrent to his nature. 

He was a student of science and literature ; and in 

the most accomplished female society he found his 

social joy. While forming the comprehensive views 

of statesmenship and of strategy, and evincing 

bravery unsurpassed by any knight of romance, he 

was in manners, thought, and utterance, as unaffected 

as a child. 

John S. C. Abbott. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 
The Early Life of John Paul Jones. 

PAGE 

His Birth and Childhood. — Residence and Employments in Scot- 
land. — His Studious Habits. — First Voyage to America. — 
Engaged in the Slave Trade. — Reasons for Abandoning it. — 
False Charges against him. — His Sensitiveness to Obloquy. 
— Espouses the Cause of the Colonies. — Developments of 
Character. — Extracts from his Letters. .... 9 

CHAPTER n. 

The Infant Navy. 

Rescuing the Brigantine. — Commissioned as Captain. — Escape 
from the Solway. — Conflict with the Milford. — Adventures 
at Canso and Madame. — Return with Prizes. — Expedition 
to Cape Breton. — Wise Counsel of Jones. — Brilliant Naval 
Campaign. — Saving the Prizes. — Value of the Mellish. — Mis- 
sion to France. — Disappointment. — Sails with the Ranger. . 32 

CHAPTER HI. 

Bearding the British Lion, 

Aid from France. — Plan for the Destruction of the British Fleet. 
— The American Flag Saluted. — Bold Movement of Captain 
Jones. — Cruise along the Shores of England. — Capture of 
Prizes. — Salutaiy Lessons given to England. — Operations in 
the Frith of Clyde. — At Carrickfergus. — Attempt upon the 
Drake. — Burning the Shipping at Whitehaven. — Capture of 
the Plate of Lord Selkirk. . . ..... 56 



VlU CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 
Captain Jones at Nantes and at Brest. 

PAGB 

Correspondence with Lord Selkirk. — Terrible Battle with the 
ship Drake. — Capture of the ship. — Carnage on board the 
Drake. — Generosity to Captured Fishermen. — Insubordina- 
tion of Lieutenant Simpson. — Embarrassments of Captain 
Jones. — Hopes and Disappointments. — Proofs of Unselfish 
Patriotism. — Letter to the King of France. — Anecdote of 
Poor Richard 78 

CHAPTER V. 

Cruise of the Bon Homme Richard, 

Plans of Lafayette. — Correspondence. — Humane Instructions of 
Franklin. — Proposed Invasion of England. — Sailing of the 
Squadron. — Conduct of Pierre Landais. — The Collision. — 
Adventures of the Cruise. — Insane Actions of Landais. — 
Plan for Capture. — Plan for the Capture of Leith and 
Edinburgh. lOO 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis. 

Leith Threatened. — The Summons. — Remarkable Prayer. — 
Wide-spread Alarm. — Continuation of the Cruise. — Insubor- 
dination of Landais. — Successive Captures. — Terrible Battle 
between the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis. — The 
Great Victory 123 

CHAPTER VII. 

Result of the Victory. 

Dreadful Spectacle. — Sinking of the Bon Homme Richard. — 
Escape of the Baltic Fleet. — Sails for the Texel. — Interesting 
Correspondence. — Sufferings of the American Prisoners. — 



CONTENTS. IX 

PAGE 

Barbarity of the English Government. — Humanity of Captain 
Jones. — The Transference from the Serapis to the Alliance. 
— Extracts from the British Press. — Release of Prisoners. . 148 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Commodore yones at Court. 

Offer of a Privateersman. — Indignant Reply. — The Renown of 
Commodore Jones, — Successful Retreat. — Cruise through the 
Channel. — Poetic Effusion. — Enters Corunna. — Letter to 
Lafayette. — Embarrassed Finances of Franklin. — Intrigues 
of Landais. — His Efforts to Excite Mutiny. — Testimony 
against him. — Commodore Jones at Court 172 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Mutiny of Landais, 

The Visit of Jones to Versailles. — Intrigues of Landais. — The 
Alliance Wrested from Jones. — Complicity of Arthur Lee. — 
Magnanimity of Jones. — Strong Support of Dr. Johnson. — 
Honors Conferred upon Jones. — Strange Career of Landais. 
— His Life in America, and Death. — Continued Labors and 
Embarrassments of Jones. — His Correspondence. , . 193 

CHAPTER X. 
The Return to America. 

Fitting the Ariel. — Painful Delays. — The Sailing. — Terrible 
Tempest. — The Disabled Ship.— Puts back to L'Orient. — 
The Second Departure. — Meets the Triumph. — Bloody 
Naval Battle. — Perfidious Escape of the Triumph. — The 
Ariel Reaches America. — Honors Lavished upon Jones. — 
Appointed to Build and Command the America. — Great 
Skill Displayed. — The Ship given to France. — The Launch. 214 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XI. 
The War Ended. 

PAGE 

Promise of the South Carolina. — A New Disappointment. — The 
Great Expedition Planned. — Magnitude of the Squadron. 
— The Appointed Rendezvous. — Commodore Jones Joins 
the Expedition. — His Cordial Reception. — Great Difficulties 
and Embarrassments. — The Rendezvous at Port Cabella. 
— Tidings of Peace. — Return to America. — New Mission to 
France 236 

CHAPTER Xn. 

The Difficulties of Diplomacy. 

Courteous Reception in Paris. — Compliment of the King. — Prin- 
ciples of Prize Division. — Embarrassing Questions. — Inter- 
esting Correspondence. — The Final Settlement. — Modest 
Claims of Commodore Jones. — Plan for a Commercial Specu- 
lation. — Its Failure. — The Mission to Denmark. — Return to 
America 258 

CHAPTER XIII. 

The Missio7i to Denmark. 

Letter to Mr. Jefferson. — The Marquise de Marsan. — Unfounded 
Charges and Vindication. — Flattering Application from 
Catherine II. — His Reception at the Polish Court. — Jones 
receives the Title of Rear- Admiral. — English Insolence. — 
Letter of Catherine II. . . ^ 280 



CHAPTER XIV. 

The Russian Campaign. 

Admiral Jones repairs to the Black Sea. — Designs of Catheiine 
II. — Imposing Cavalcade. — Turkey Declares War against 
Russia. — Daring Conduct of Admiral Jones. — A Greek 



CONTENTS. XI 

PAGE 

Officer Alexiana. — The Prince of Nassau Siegen. — Annoy- 
ances of Admiral Jones from Russian Officers. — Battle in the 
Black Sea. — Jones yields the Honor to the Prince of Nassau. 298 

CHAPTER XV. 

Adventures tfi the Black Sea. 

The First Battle. — Folly of the Prince of Nassau. — Inefficiency 
of the Gun-boats. — Burning of the Greek Captives. — Hu- 
manity of Jones. — Alienation between the Admiral and the 
Prince of Nassau. — The Second Conflict. — Annoyances of 
the Admiral. — Hostility of the English. — Necessary Employ- 
ment of Foreign Seamen. — Disgrace of Nassau. — Transfer- 
ence of the Admiral to the Baltic. 316 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Retirement and Death. 

The Return to Cherson. — Sickness and Sadness. — Oczakow 
Stormed. — The Wintry Journey to St. Petersburg. — Mental 
Activity. — Calumniated by the English. — The Admiral's 
Defence. — Slanderous Accusation. — His Entire Acquittal. — 
Testimony of Count Segur, — Letter to the Empress. — Obtains 
Leave of Absence. — Returns to France. — Life in Paris. — 
Sickness and Death 337 



Paul Jones. 



CHAPTER I. 
The Early Life of John Paul Jones', 



His Birth and Childhood.— Residence and Employments in Scot- 
land.— His Studious Habits.— First Voyage to America. — 
Engaged in the Slave Trade.— Reasons for Abandoning it.— 
False Charges against Him.— His Sensitiveness to Obloquy.— 
Espouses the Cause of the Colonies. — Developments of Charac- 
ter. — Extracts from his Letters. 



In the lonely wilds of Scotland there was, about 
the middle of the last century, a secluded hamlet 
called Arbingland. There was a respectable gar- 
dener there by the name of John Paul. He had a 
son born on the 6th of July, 1747, to whom he gave 
his own name of John. His humble cottage was 
near the shores of Solway Frith. Young John 
Paul, like most energetic lads who live within sound 
of the ocean surge, became impassioned with long- 
ings for a sailor's life. When twelve years of age he 



lO PAUL JONES. 

was sent across the bay to Whitehaven, in England, 
then quite an important seaport. Here he was 
apprenticed to Mr. Younger, who was quite exten- 
sively engaged in the American trade. 

The daily intercourse of John with the sea- 
men inspired him with a strong desire to visit the 
New World. He had received a good common- 
school education, such as Scottish boys generally 
enjoyed at that time, and was also so eager for intel- 
lectual improvement that all his leisure time was 
given to study. He particularly devoted himself to 
the acquisition of a thorough knowledge of the 
theory of navigation. He even studied French. 
Often at midnight, when many of his companions 
were at a carouse, he was found absorbed with his 
books. 

When John was thirteen years of age he em- 
barked, as a sailor, on board the ship Friendship, 
bound for the Rappahannock, in Virginia, for a 
cargo of tobacco. He had an elder brother, Wil- 
liam, who had emigrated to this country, and, marry- 
ing a Virginia girl, had settled on the banks of the 
Rappahannock. John had acquired a high reputa- 
tion at Whitehaven for his correct deportment, his 
intelligence, and his fidelity in the discharge of every 
duty. He improved his time so well, while in the 
employment of Mr. Younger, as to lay the founda- 



HIS EARLY LIFE. II 

tion for that eminence, which he could not have ob- 
tained but for this education. He could write his 
own language correctly, and even with considerable 
force ; he was a very respectable French scholar, 
and there were but few ship-masters who could 
excel him in the science of navigation. 

John Paul was but thirteen years of age when, in 
the year 1760, he crossed the Atlantic and was cor- 
dially welcomed in the humble home of his brother, 
in one of the most attractive valleys of the world. 
He was delighted with the entirely new scenes 
which were here opened before him, and became 
thoroughly American in his feelings. His first visit 
was a short one, as he returned with his ship to 
Whitehaven. Soon after this, Mr. Younger failed in 
business, and Paul was released from his indentures. 
Thus the precocious boy, who was already a man in 
thoughtfulness, energy, and earnestness of purpose, 
was thrown upon his own resources. 

He made several voyages, and at length shipped 
as third mate on board the ship King George, which 
was bound to the Guinea Coast of Africa, for slaves. 
Strange as it now appears, the slave trade was then 
considered an honorable calling. Men of unques- 
tioned piety, who morning and evening kneeled 
with their happy children around the family altar, 
fitted out ships to desolate the homes and steal the 



12 PAUL JONES. 

children of Africans, and bear them away to life-long 
slavery. Many a captain, after crowding the hold 
of his ship with these melancholy victims of his 
inhumanity, would retire to his cabin, read the pre- 
cepts of Jesus, '* As ye would that men should do to 
you, do ye also to them likewise," and would then 
kneel in prayer, imploring God's blessing. And this 
was not hypocrisy. So strange a being is fallen man. 

We have no indications that any compunctions 
of conscience disturbed John Paul on this voyage. 
The most illustrious, opulent, and worthy people of 
England were engaged in the infamous traffic. Of 
course it was not to be expected that a boy, scarcely 
emerging from childhood, should develop humanity 
above that of the generation in the midst of which 
he was born. The Friendship bore its freight of 
human victims to the West Indies, where they were 
sold. He then, when nineteen years of age, shipped 
at Jamaica, on board the brigantine Two Friends, 
for Africa, to obtain another cargo of slaves. 

It speaks volumes in favor of the intelligence of 
John Paul, that he became so thoroughly disgusted 
with the cruelty of the traffic, desolating Africa with 
the most merciless wars, and tearing husbands from 
wives, parents from children, that, upon his return to 
Kingston, he declared that he would have nothing 
more to do with the traffic forever. His friends 



HIS EARLY LIFE. 1 3 

unite in giving their testimony to this his resolve, 
and it is confirmed by the uniform tenor of his sub- 
sequent correspondence. 

From this his second slaving voyage he embarked 
for Scotland, as a passenger, on board the brigantine 
John, under the command of Captain Macadam. 
On the passage the yellow fever broke out. Both 
the captain and the mate of the ship died. They 
were left in the middle of the stormy Atlantic, with 
none of the crew capable of navigating the ship. 
Fortunately for all, John Paul assumed the com- 
mand. The whole crew gratefully recognized his 
authority. Be it remembered that he had not yet 
finished his twentieth year. He brought the ship 
safe into port. The owners, Messrs. Currie, Beck 
& Co., in recompense of the great service he had 
rendered them, at once gave him command of a ship 
both as captain and supercargo. In their employ- 
ment he sailed for two voyages. 

On one of these voyages. Captain Paul was 
accused of whipping, with undue severity, an insub- 
ordinate sailor, by the name of Mungo Maxwell. 
But a legal investigation absolved him from all 
blame. The accusation, and the trial which was 
prolonged through six months, caused Captain Paul 
great annoyance. The following letter to his mo- 
ther and sisters reveals his feehngs, and much of his 



14 PAUL JONES. 

character, at that time. He was then but twenty- 
five years of age. 

"London, 24th September, 1772. 

" My Dear Mother and Sisters, 

*' I only arrived here last night from the Gre- 
nadas. I have had but poor health during the voy- 
age. My success in it not having equalled my first 
sanguine expectations, has added very much to the 
asperity of my misfortunes, and, I am well assured, 
was the cause of my loss of health. I am now, 
however, better, and I trust Providence will soon 
put me in a way to get bread, and, which is far my 
greatest happiness, to be serviceable to my poor but 
much valued friends. I am able to give you no 
account of my future proceedings, as they depend 
upon circumstances which are not fully determined. 
*' I have enclosed to you a copy of an affidavit 
made before Governor Young, by the Judge of the 
Court of Vice-Admiralty of Tobago, by which you 
will see with how little reason my life has been 
thirsted after, and, which is much dearer to me, my 
honor, by maliciously loading my fair character with 
obloquy and vile aspersions. I believe there are 
few who are hard-hearted enough to think I have 
not long since given to the world every satisfaction 
in my power, being conscious of my innocence 



HIS EARLY LIFE. 1 5 

before Heaven, who will one day judge even my 
judges. 

" I staked my honor, life, and fortune, for six 
long months, on the verdict of a British jury, not- 
withstanding I was sensible of the general prejudice 
which ran against me. But, after all, none of my 
accusers had the courage to confront me. Yet I am 
willing to convince the world, if reason and facts will 
do it, that they have had no foundation for their 
harsh treatment. 

" I mean to send Mr. Craik a copy, properly 
proved, as his nice feelings will not, perhaps, be 
otherwise satisfied. In the mean time, if you please, 
you can show him that enclosed. His ungracious 
conduct to me before I left Scotland I have not yet 
been able to get the better of. Every person of 
feeling must think meanly of adding to the load 
of the afflicted. It is true I bore it with seeming 
unconcern. But heaven can witness for me that 
I suffered the more on that very account. But 
enough of this." 

The Mr. Craik to whom he here refers was a 
gentleman of property, in whose employment Mr. 
Paul's father had formerly been engaged. The 
whole family were accustomed to look up to him 
with much reverence. It was perhaps a fault in 
young Captain Paul that the organ of veneration, as 



1 6 PAUL JONES. 

the phrenologists would say, was not, In him, very 
fully developed. His knees were not supple in 
bowing before those who were above him in 
wealth and rank. Mr. Craik had not fancied the 
independent boy, and was consequently the more 
ready to believe the charges which were brought 
against him. 

A rumor reached Mr. Paul, while in the West 
Indies, that the commercial firm in whose service 
he was sailing was about to close its operations. 
This would throw him out of employment. He 
wrote in the following terms to Mr. Craik, whom as 
a family friend and patron he highly respected. 
This letter was written a year before the charge for 
the maltreatment of Mungo Maxwell was brought 
against him. It was as follows : 

"St. George, Grenada, 5th August, 1770. 

" Sir, 

" Common report here says that my owners are 
going to finish their connections in the West Indies 
as fast as possible. How far this is true I shall not 
pretend to judge. But should that really prove to 
be the case, you know the disadvantage I must labor 
under. 

** These, however, would not have been the case 
had I been acquainted with the matter sooner, as, in 



HIS EARLY LIFE. 1 7 

that case, I believe I could have made interest with 
some gentlemen here to have been concerned with 
me in a large ship out of London. And as these 
gentlemen have estates in this and the adjacent 
islands, I should have been able to make two voyages 
every year, and should always have had a full ship 
out and home. 

" However, I by no means repine, as it is a max- 
im with me to do my best and leave the rest to Pro- 
vidence. I shall take no step whatever without your 
knowledge and approbation. I have had several very 
severe fevers lately, which have reduced me a good 
deal, though I am now perfectly recovered. I must 
beg you to supply my mother, shouldfeshe want any- 
thing, as I well know your readiness. I hope your- 
self and family enjoy health and happiness. 
" I am, most sincerely, sir, yours always, 

"John Paul.'* 

In 1773, John Paul's brother died, in Virginia. 
He died childless, and left no will. John repaired to 
his brother's former residence to settle the estate. 
Here, for some reason which has never been satisfac- 
torily explained, he assumed the surname of Jones, 
so that he ever afterward became familiarly known 
as Paul Jones. His subsequent achievements be- 
came such, that probably that name will never be 



1 8 PAUL JONES. 

obliterated from the memories of men. He had 
acquired considerable property, which he intrusted 
to agents at Tobago, and it was all lost. 

Captain Jones, weary of the wandering life of a 
sailor and its unsatisfactory results, was now disposed 
to devote his days to the peaceful pursuits of agri- 
culture and to study, for which he had very strong 
predilections. In his letters to his friends he often 
expressed his desire to enter upon a life of *' calm 
contemplation and poetic ease." Man proposes, God 
disposes. The tumultuous career into which he was 
led, was not one which he would have sought for him- 
self. He was almost forced into it by the state of 
the times. m 

When in the midst of the stormiest scenes, with- 
out a family and without a home, he wrote pensively 
to the Countess of Selkirk, that duty to his country 
had compelled him ** to sacrifice not only his favor- 
ite scheme of life, but the softer affections of his 
heart, and his hopes of domestic happiness." His 
letters all indicate that he was a thoughtful man, one 
who deeply pondered the mystery of this our earthly 
being, and who made frank acknowledgment of his 
moral and religious obligations. 

His favorite poet was Thomson ; and his '' Sea- 
sons " he read and re-read. It is not possible that 
any man of frivolous nature should develop a taste 



HIS EARLY LIFE. I9 

SO serious and so elevating. The loss of all his pro- 
perty at Tobago disheartened him, and repelled him 
from the risks of a commercial life. This probably 
decided him to settle down as a planter in Virginia, 
and to remain satisfied with the humble competence 
of a cultivator of the soil, in a rural home. He 
wrote to the Hon. Robert Morris ; 

" I conclude that Mr. Hewes has acquainted you 
with a very great misfortune which befell me some 
years ago, and which brought me into North Ame- 
rica. I am under no concern whatever, that this, or 
any other past circumstance of my Hfe, will sink me 
in your opinion. Since human wisdom cannot secure 
us from accidents, it is the greatest effort of human 
wisdom to bear them well." 

From the age of thirteen, America had been the 
country of his adoption. Increasing years but added 
to his attachment to the principles of liberty which 
were being developed here. His innate mental con- 
stitution revolted from the feudal subserviency which 
a haughty aristocracy exacted in Europe. When the 
struggle was commencing between the mother coun- 
try and these her infant colonies, Mr. Jones, with all 
the ardor of his nature, espoused the colonial cause. 
He then occupied the position of a Virginia gentle- 
man, highly respected for his character and his en- 
dowments. The rank of those with whom he was in 



20 PAUL JONES. 

correspondence indicates his social position. He was 
not a friendless adventurer, but an intelligent patriot, 
whose influence was constantly increasing through 
the sound judgment, the courage, and the spirit of 
self-sacrifice he was ever exhibiting. 

He often expressed deep regret for the painful 
necessity which compelled him to take up arms 
against the Government of his native land. But he 
was struggling for the maintenance of his own rights, 
and those of his fellow-countrymen, goaded to resist 
unendurable tyranny. In a letter which he wrote to 
Baron Vander Capellan, then Dutch minister at the 
Hague, he says : 

^' I was indeed born in Britain ; but I do not in- 
herit the degenerate spirit of that fallen nation, 
which I at once lament and despise. It is far be- 
neath me to reply to their hireling invectives. They 
are strangers to the envied approbation that greatly 
animates and rewards the man who draws his sword 
only in support of the dignity of freedom. America 
has been the country of my fond election from the 
age of thirteen, when I first saw it. I had the honor 
to hoist, with my own hands, the flag of freedom, 
the first time it was displayed on the Delaware, and 
I have attended it with veneration ever since on the 
ocean." 

When the war of the Revolution, in 1775, com- 



HIS EARLY LIFE. 21 

menced, England had a thousand war-vessels. The 
colonies had not one. Congress equipped a naval 
force of five vessels to resist the most powerful naval 
armament this world has ever known. Paul Jones 
was appointed first lieutenant of one of these, the 
ship Alfred. He owed this appointment to the 
Hon. Joseph Hewes, a member of Congress, and a 
signer of the Declaration of Independence, who 
chanced to be acquainted with the rare qualifications 
of Mr. Jones for the position. Captain Saltonstall 
commanded the Alfred. 

On the 14th of November, 1776, the Alfred, a fri- 
gate of 44 guns was lying at anchor off Chestnut Street 
wharf, in Philadelphia. We had then no national ban- 
ner. As the commander came on board, Lieutenant 
John Paul Jones, with his own hands, raised the first 
American naval flag, under a salute of thirteen guns. 
This flag, it is said, then consisted of thirteen stripes, 
emblematic of the thirteen colonies, and a pine-tree 
with a rattlesnake coiled at the roots, as if about to 
spring. Underneath was the motto, " Don't Tread 
upon Me." In commemoration of this event. Miss 
Sherburne wrote an ode, from which we quote two 
stanzas : 

" 'Twas Jones, Paul Jones, who first o'er Delaware's tide 
From Alfred's main displayed Columbia's pride ; 
The stripes, of freedom proudly waved on high, 
While shouts of freedom rang for liberty. 



22 PAUL JONES. 

*' Through England's fleets thou dashed in bold array. 
On Albion's coast spread terror and dismay ; 
Thy cannons' thunder shook her rock-bound shore, 
Her Lion trembled midst his boastful roar." 

The little squadron, consisting of the ships Alfred 
and Columbus, the brigantines Andrew Doria and 
Cabot, and the sloop Providence, sailed from the Bay 
of Delaware on the 17th of February, 1776, to make 
a descent on the British Island of New Providence, 
to seize a quantity ' of mihtary stores which were 
deposited in the forts there. The squadron was 
armed in all with one hundred guns and about one 
thousand men. Ezekiel Hopkins was commander- 
in-chief of the fleet. The fleet was not ready to sail 
until the middle of February. Struggling through 
vast masses of ice, the vessels passed Cape Hen- 
lopen on the 17th of the month. 

In this important enterprise John Paul Jones 
was only a lieutenant. But it should be remarked 
that there were three grades of lieutenant, and that 
he was placed at the head of the first grade. He 
was offered a captain's commission, to take command 
of the Providence, which carried twelve guns and 
one hundred and fifty men. Modestly this extraor- 
dinary man declined the responsible position, not 
deeming himself fully qualified to fill it. Subse- 
quently, in a letter to the Hon. Robert Morris, he 
wrote : 



HIS EARLY LIFE. 2$ 

" When I came to try my skill I am not ashamed 
to own that I did not find myself perfect in the 
duties of a first lieutenant. However, I by no 
means admit that any one of the gentlemen who so 
earnestly sought after rank and the command, was, 
at the beginning, able to teach me any part of the 
duty of a sea-officer. Since that time it is well 
known there has been no comparison between their 
means of acquiring military marine knowledge and 
mine. If midnight study and the instruction of the 
greatest and most learned sea-officers can have given 
me advantages, I am not without them. I confess, 
however, I am yet to learn. It is the work of many 
years' study and experience to acquire the high 
degree of science necessary for a great sea-officer. 
Cruising after merchant-ships, the service on which 
our frigates have generally been employed, affords, 
I may say, no part of the knowledge necessary for 
conducting fleets and their operations. There is 
now perhaps as much difference between a single 
battle between two ships, and an engagement be- 
tween two fleets, as there is between a single duel 
and a ranged battle between two armies." 

While the fleet was fitting and manning. Lieute- 
nant Jones had superintended all the affairs on board 
the Alfred. It was not until a day or two before the 
squadron sailed that Captain Saltonstall appeared and 



24 PAUL JONES. 

took the command. On the 4th of March the 
squadron anchored at Abaco, one of the Bahama 
Islands, about one hundred miles north from New 
Providence. On the passage they had captured 
two small sloops from New Providence. They 
learned from the crew of these vessels, that the forts 
were not strongly garrisoned, and that they con- 
tained large magazines of all military stores. 

The commander was not skilful either as a sea- 
man or a soldier. Through mismanagement the 
enterprise came near proving a total failure. Jones 
was born to command. Without any effort on his 
part, his superior mind and knowledge naturally 
assumed ascendency. Seeing that all things were 
going wrong, he suggested sailing round to the west 
of the island, landing the marines about nine miles 
from the fort, and then, by a rapid march, to make 
the assault. Mr. Jones promised himself to pilot the 
vessels to a safe anchorage. With some reluctance 
Captain Saltonstall gave his assent. Jones took 
the pilot with him to the foretopmast-head. From 
that point they could see every reef and rock, and 
trace out the channel. The marines landed under 
cover of the guns. There was no force sufficient to 
oppose them. Captain Saltonstall, by his injudicious 
movements, had given ample warning of his approach, 
so that the governor had found time, during the -^ 



HIS EARLY LIFE. 2$ 

night, to load two sloops with ammunition and send 
them away. This might easily have been prevented 
by ordering the two brigantines to He off the bar. 

The island was surrendered by the governor. 
The guns, and all the governmental property in the 
forts, were embarked on board the vessels. All pri- 
vate property was sacredly respected. And this was 
done when the officers of the English Government 
were laying our villages in ashes, and hounding on 
the savages to assail our defenceless frontier with the 
torch and the tomahawk. The governor and two 
other military men were brought off as prisoners. 

On the return with this booty, of such almost 
inestimable value to the struggling colonies, the fleet 
captured two vessels without a struggle, the Hawke, 
a schooner of six guns, and the brig Bolton, of eight 
guns. The fleet encountered off Block Island, at the 
head of Long Island Sound, an Enghsh frigate, the 
Glasgow, of 24 guns. The Alfred mounted 30 guns, 
the Columbus 28 Had there been any skill in mili- 
tary seamanship displayed, the Glasgow could not 
have escaped this force. The sea was perfectly 
smooth. Lieutenant Jones was placed between 
decks to serve the first battery. He could have no 
voice in the direction of the battle. Whenever his 
guns could be brought to bear upon the enemy he 
served them well. Captain Saltonstall, in his official 



26 PAUL JONES. 

report, testified to his fidelity in duty. The Glasgow 
escaped. This was our first naval battle. It reflect- 
ed no credit upon our infant marine. Lieutenant 
Jones and the whole nation were deeply chagrined 
by the disgrace of that nigM. Repressing merited 
condemnation, he mildly wrote, *' It is for the com- 
mander-in-chief and the captains to answer for the 
escape of the Glasgow." 

Two days after the inglorious action the squad- 
ron entered the harbor of New London. A court- 
martial was held to investigate the affair. The 
account which Lieutenant Jones gave of the en- 
gagement, in the log-book of the Alfred, shows a 
generous and magnanimous mind. 

"At 2 A. M. cleared ship for action. At half-past 
two, the Cabot, being between us and the enemy, 
began to engage, and soon after we did the same. 
At the third glass the enemy bore away, and, by 
crowding sail, at length got a considerable way 
ahead, and made signals for the rest of the English 
fleet, at Rhode Island, to come to her assistance, and 
steered directly for the harbor. 

" The commodore then thought it imprudent to 
risk our prizes, by pursuing farther. Therefore, 
to prevent our being decoyed into their hands, at 
half-past six made the signal to leave off chase and 
haul by the wind to join our prizes. The Cabot was 



HIS EARLY LIFE. 2/ 

disabled at the second broadside ; the captain being 
dangerously wounded, the master and several men 
killed. The enemy's whole fire was then directed at 
us. An unlucky shot having carried away our wheel- 
block and ropes, the sMp broached to, and gave the 
enemy an opportunity of raking us with several 
broadsides before we were again in condition to steer 
the ship and return the fire. 

" In the action we received several shots under 
water, which made the ship very leaky. We had, 
besides, the mainmast shot through, and the upper 
works and rigging very considerably damaged. Yet 
it is surprising that we only lost the second lieutenant 
of marines and four men. We had no more than 
three men dangerously, and four slightly wounded." 

The skill with which the guns of the Alfred were 
served may be inferred from the fact, that a passen- 
ger on board the Glasgow testified that her hull 
was seriously damaged ; that ten shot passed through 
her mainmast, fifty-two through her mizzen staysail, 
one hundred and ten through her mainsail, and 
eighty-eight through her foresail. She had many 
spars carried away, and her rigging was badly cut to 
pieces. 

This our first naval battle was fought so near the 
Rhode Island shore, that the report of the guns was 
heard, and even the flashes were seen by those on 



28 PAUL JONES. 

the land. The Continental Gazette of May 29, 1776, 
gives the following quaint account of the conflict, 
from one who listened to the thunders booming over 
the waves. 

" For several hours before and during the en- 
gagement, a vast number of cannon were heard from 
the southeast. About sunrise eight or ten sail of 
ships and brigs were seen a little to the eastward of 
Block Island. Indeed, the flashes of the cannon were 
seen by some people about daybreak. These things 
caused much speculation. But in a few hours the 
mystery was somewhat cleared up ; for away came 
the poor Glasgow, under all the sail she could set, 
yelping from the mouths of her cannon like a broken- 
legged dog, as a signal of her being sadly wounded. 
And though she settled away, and handed most of 
her sails just before she came into the harbor, it was 
plainly perceived, by the holes in those she had 
standing, and by the hanging of her yards, that she 
had been treated in a very rough manner." 

Though Lieutenant Jones could not be blind to 
the want of nautical skill displayed in allowing the 
Glasgow to escape, he did not doubt that the 
commodore had done the best he could. Not a 
word of demur escaped his lips. In a letter to Hon. 
Mr. Hewes, he wrote : 

** I have the pleasure of assuring you that the 



HIS EARLY LIFE. 29 

commander-in-chief is respected through the fleet* 
I verily believe that the officers, and men in general, 
would go any length to execute his orders." 

Another passage in the same letter throws such 
light upon the well-balanced and noble character of 
Lieutenant Jones that I cannot refrain from quoting 
it. He writes : 

*' It is certainly for the interests of the service 
that a cordial interchange of civilities should subsist 
between superior and inferior officers. Therefore it 
is bad policy in superiors to behave toward their infe- 
riors as though they were of a lower species. Men 
of liberal minds, who have long been accustomed to 
command, can ill brook being thus set at naught by 
others who pretend to claim the monopoly of sense. 
The rude, ungentle treatment which they experience, 
creates such heart-burnings as are nowise consonant 
with that cheerful ardor and spirit which ought 
ever to be a characteristic of an officer. Therefore, 
whoever thinks himself hearty in the service, is 
widely mistaken when he adopts such a line of con- 
duct in order to prove it. To be well obeyed it is 
necessary to be esteemed." 

Two courts-martial were held on board the 
Alfred. The captain of the Providence was dis- 
missed from service. Lieutenant Jones was pro- 
moted to the captaincy of that sloop. The little 



30 PAUL JONES. 

fleet, having received a reinforcement of two hun- 
dred men, sailed from Providence, Rhode Island. 
The vessels having been refitted, it was necessary to 
enlist more men before any important enterprise 
could be undertaken. As most of the seamen had 
enlisted in the army, it was found very difficult to 
obtain men fit for naval service. 

On the 1 8th of May, Captain Jones, after a pas- 
sage of thirty-six hours, arrived in New York, where 
he devoted his time to shipping mariners. He was 
greatly interested in everything relating to the crea- 
tion of a navy for the new nation of the United 
States, just entering into being. He wrote to Hon. 
Mr. Hewes : 

" In my opinion a commander in the navy ought 
to be a man of strong and well-connected sense ; a 
gentleman, as well as a seaman in theory and in 
practice. Want of learning, and rude, ungentle man- 
ners, are by no means characteristic of an officer." 

Captain Jones, having at length obtained the 
number of men required, in obedience to orders 
sailed for New London, where he took from the 
hospital all the seamen who had been left there sick, 
but who liad recovered, and sailed for Providence, 
Rhode Island. Scarcely had he arrived there when 
he received orders from the commander-in-chief 
to come immediately down Narragansett Bay, to 



HIS EARLY LIFE. 3 1 

attack an English sloop-of-war, then in sight. He 
obeyed with alacrity. But the sloop had disap- 
peared before he reached Newport. He was then 
ordered to Newburyport, to convoy a vessel with 
a cargo of cannon to New York, and then, return- 
ing, to convoy some vessels from Stonington to 
Newport. 

It will be remembered that England then had a 
fleet of a thousand sail ; superior, probably, to all 
the combined navies of the globe. This was the 
naval power we were to resist with our poor little 
squadron of five vessels, mounting in all but one 
hundred guns. The majestic frigates of the enemy 
blockaded almost every harbor in the colonies. 
There were several of these cruising at the eastern 
entrance of Long Island Sound, to cut of all naval 
intercourse between the colonies of the Middle and 
those of the Eastern States. 



CHAPTER IT. 

The Infant Navy, 

Rescuing the Brigantine. — Com missioned as Captain. — Escape from 
the Solway. — Conflict with the Milford. — Adventures at Canso 
and Madame. — Return with Prizes. — Expedition to Cape Bre- 
ton. — Wise Counsel of Jones. — Brilliant Naval Campaign. — 
Saving the Prizes. — Value of the Mellish. — Mission to France. — 
Disappointment. — Sails with the Ranger. 

Captain Jones found all his intelligence, bravery, 
and nautical skill tested to the utmost, in evading, 
thwarting, and struggling against the British men-of- 
war swarming around him. He had several very 
fierce rencontres with forces superior to his own. One 
day he saw a foreign vessel (I think it was Spanish), 
coming from St. Domingo, with a cargo of military 
stores for the colonies. This brigantine was hotly 
pursued by the Cerberus, a British man-of-war. 
The thunders of her bow-guns echoed over the 
waves, while the balls of solid shot, ricochetting 
for more than a mile, proclaimed how terrible the 
bolts which those thunders sent forth. 

The courage and nautical skill of Captain Jones 
rescued the brigantine and her precious cargo. The 



THE INFANT NAVY. 33 

vessel was afterward purchased by Congress, and 
named the Hampden. He was then ordered to 
Boston, whence he convoyed some merchant vessels 
to Philadelphia. This was indeed an arduous and 
perilous mission. The war-ships of the enemy were 
daily arriving off Sandy Hook, under the guidance of 
Lord Howe. Captain Jones caught sight of several 
of these ships, which, with a single broadside, could 
have sunk him. But he had the address to avoid 
them. On the 8th of August, 1776, he received 
from John Hancock, President of Congress, his com- 
njiission as captain. It contained the following 
words : 

"John Paul Jones, Esq. 

** We, reposing especial -trust and confidence 
in your patriotism, valor, conduct, and fidelity, do, 
by these presents, constitute and appoint you to 
be captain in the navy of the United States, fitted 
out for the defence of American liberty, and for re- 
pelling every hostile invasion thereof. You are 
therefore carefully and diligently to discharge the 
duty of captain, by doing and performing all manner 
of things thereunto belonging. And we do strictly 
charge and require all officers, marines, and seamen, 
under your command, to be obedient to your orders 
as captain." 



34 PAUL JONES. 

He then received orders to set out on a cruise of 
two or three months against the navy of Great Bri- 
tain. For this enterprise he was furnished with the 
sloop Providence, which mounted twelve guns, and 
was manned by but seventy sailors. He was left 
entirely to his own discretion, not being confined to 
any particular station or service. Captain Jones 
sailed from Philadelphia, on this chivalric expedition, 
the latter part of August, 1776. Not far from the 
Island of Bermuda he encountered a British frigate, 
the Solway. 

It was like the fox meeting the hound. The 
only safety was in flight. A chase took place, with 
a constant interchange of shot. This running fight 
continued for six hours. Those who are familiar 
with nautical affairs, will understand the bold measure 
by which he escaped. He gradually edged away 
until he brought his heavy adversary upon his wea- 
ther quarter. Then, putting his helm suddenly up, 
he stood dead before the wind. At the same mo- 
ment he threw out all his light sails, with which his 
little sloop was abundantly furnished. This man- 
oeuvre compelled him to pass within pistol-shot of his 
pursuer. But he knew that he could sail much faster 
than the frigate, before the wind. 

The captain of the Solway was quite unprepared 
for such a manoeuvre. Before he could change his 



THE INFANT NAVY. 35 

course to imitate it, the Providence had gained such 
a start as to be soon beyond the reach of the Sol- 
way's guns. Triumphantly the little sloop swept 
the waves until the discomfited frigate gave up the 
chase. 

Not long after this, as Captain Jones was lying 
to, on the banks near the Isle of Sables, to allow his 
men to fish, another large English frigate hove in 
sight, which proved to be the Milford. Though he 
had much confidence in the speed of his light little 
sloop, which, under her cloud of canvas, could 
almost like a bubble skim the wave, he prudently 
tried her speed with that of the gigantic foe ap- 
proaching. Finding that he could easily outstrip 
her, he tauntingly allowed the Milford to approach 
to nearly within gun-shot. He then spread his sails, 
keeping just out of harm's way. 

The frigate rounded to and discharged her 
broadside. The shot skipped over the waves and 
sank at some distance before reaching the sloop. 
After each broadside, Captain Jones, in token of his 
contempt, ordered his marine officer to return the 
fire, by the discharge of a single musket. He kept 
up this burlesque of a battle, causing the frigate to 
throw away her ammunition, from ten o'clock in the 
morning till sunset. He then spread all sail and 
went unharmed on his way. 



36 PAUL JONES. 

The next morning he entered the Gut of Canso, 
which separates the Island of Cape Breton from 
the mainland. He found three English schooners in 
the harbor of Canso. He burned one, and sunk 
another, after having filled the third, a schooner, the 
Ebenezer, with what fish had been found in the 
other two. Here he learned that at the Island of 
Madame, near by, on the east side of the Bay of 
Canso, there were nine British vessels, consisting of 
brigs, ships, and schooners. He sent boats, well 
armed, to destroy them, while he kept off and on 
with his sloop, ready to punish severely any attempt 
to rescue the shipping. 

The enterprise was entirely successful, and, as 
no opposition was made, it was bloodless. These 
vessels had transferred their cargoes to the shore, 
and were unrigged. It would take some time to fit 
them for sea. Despatch was of the utmost impor- 
tance. Captain Jones humanely, and very wisely, 
informed the crews of these vessels, that if they 
would cordially assist him in rigging and fitting out 
such vessels as he required, he would leave them 
vessels sufficient to cross the Atlantic to their own 
homes. 

Though the British officers were generally very 
bitter in their hostility to the colonial cause, it was 
not so with the masses of the EngHsh people. There 



THE INFANT NAVY. 3/ 

was in their hearts an underlying feeling of sympa- 
thy with the brave colonists who were struggling 
against intolerable oppression. These English sail- 
ors, therefore, heartily joined their American bro- 
thers, and assisted, with the utmost energy, until the 
business was accomplished. 

On the evening of September 25th, a violent 
tempest arose, with deluging rain. Captain Jones 
was compelled to cast anchor at the entrance of the 
harbor, where, with both his anchors and whole 
cables ahead, he with difficulty rode out the storm. 
One of the prize ships, the Alexander, which was 
just ready for sea, anchored under the shelter of a 
projecting point of rocks, and thus narrowly escaped 
destruction. Another of the prizes, a schooner, 
called the Sea-Flower, with a valuable cargo, was 
torn from her moorings and driven ashore, a total 
wreck. As she could not be got off the next day, 
she was set on fire. The schooner Ebenezer, which 
he had brought from Canso, laden with fish, was 
driven on a reef of sunken rocks, and totally lost. 
With great difficulty the crew saved themselves on 
a raft. 

Toward noon of the 26th this fierce gale began 
to abate. The British ship Adventure he burned in 
the harbor. He then put to sea, taking with him 



38 PAUL JONES. 

three heavily laden prizes, the ship Alexander, and 
the brigantines Kingston and Success. 

The fishery at Canso and Madame he thus effec- 
tually destroyed. He left behind him two small 
schooners and one brig, to convey the British sea- 
men, about three hundred in number, back to their 
homes. He said, " Had I not done this, I should 
have stood chargeable with inhumanity." 

This bold enterprise was indeed bearding the 
lion in his den. It woke up the British Govern- 
ment to a new sense of the vigor of that worm which 
it supposed was squirming helplessly beneath its feet. 
It taught the proud Court of St. James that in war 
there were blows to be received as well as blows 
to be given. These acts seem cruel. But '* war," 
says General Sherman, '' is cruelty. You cannot re- 
fine it." 

While England was wantonly laying our villages 
in ashes, and driving women and children in home- 
lessness and starvation into the fields, Captain Jones 
spared all private property on the land. He only 
seized or consigned to destruction that private pro- 
perty afloat, which the code of war England her- 
self had established, pronounced to be lawful booty. 
England, proud mistress of the seas, supposed that 
she, with her invincible navy, could plunder the 
commerce of all nations, and that she had nothing to 



THE INFANT NAVY. 39 

fear in the way of retaliation. It must have been to 
her indeed a surprise to find the shipping in her 
own harbors plundered and blazing. 

Captain Jones felt the necessity of the utmost 
possible expedition. He had learned that there was 
an English war-brig, of powerful armament, within 
forty-five miles of him to the southward. This for- 
midable antagonist might, at any hour, loom in sight. 
As the little fleet was crowding along under full 
sail making all haste, on the morning of the 27th, 
two sails were discerned in the distant horizon. 
There could be no doubt that they were English 
vessels. Perilous as Captain Jones's situation was, 
he could not resist the temptation to give them 
chase. 

He therefore signalled his prizes to rendezvous 
on the southwest part of the Isle of Sables, and wait 
for him there three days, should he not sooner 
appear. He then spread all sail in pursuit of the 
strangers. They also spread every inch of canvas 
they could command, and before they could be 
overtaken ran into the harbor of Louisbourg. There 
was reason to suppose that there were several British 
men-of-war there. Captain Jones therefore returned 
to his prizes at the rendezvous, and again all pressed 
forward on their homeward voyage. 

In this cruise, which lasted but six weeks and 



40 PAUL JONES. 

five days, Captain Jones captured sixteen prizes, 
besides the vessels which he destroyed in the har- 
bors of Canso and Madame. Of these prizes, eight 
he manned and sent into port. The remainder were 
burned. Captain Jones returned to Newport, Rhode 
Island, where the commander-in-chief of our little 
navy had established his headquarters. 

The British officers were treating the captives 
they had taken from the Americans, with the great- 
est brutality. They had driven one hundred prison- 
ers into the coal mines of Cape Breton, where they 
were forced to labor like slaves. This procedure 
greatly outraged Captain Jones's sense of humanity 
and justice. He suggested that an expedition should 
be fitted out for their release ; and also, as far as 
possible, to destroy England's coal fleet and her fish- 
ing fleet. The plan was approved of. For the 
accomplishment of this important enterprise he was 
allowed to fit out two vessels, the Alfred and the 
Providence. The whole burden and responsibility 
of the preparations rested upon him. He took com- 
mand of the Alfred, committing the Providence 
to Captain Hacker. He found but thirty men on 
board the Alfred, and with great difficulty succeeded 
in enlisting thirty more. When the Alfred entered 
the harbor at Newport from Philadelphia, a few 
weeks before, she had two hundred and thirty-five 



THE INFANT NAVY. 4I 

men on her muster-roll. Captain Jones, in a letter 
to Hon. Robert Morris, explained the cause of this 
singular desertion, and proposed a remedy. 

" It seems to me," he writes, " that the priva- 
teers entice the men away as fast as they receive 
their month's pay. It is to the last degree distress- 
ing to contemplate the state and establishment of 
our navy. The common class of mankind are ani- 
mated by no nobler principle than that of self-in- 
terest. This, and this alone, determines all adven- 
turers in privateers ; the owners, as well as those 
whom they employ. 

" And while this is the case, unless the private 
emolument of individuals in our navy is made supe- 
rior to that m privateers J it never can become respect- 
able ; it never will become formidable. And with- 
out a respectable navy, alas, America ! In the pres- 
ent critical situation of affairs, human wisdom can 
suggest no more than one infallible expedient : 
enlist the seamen during pleasure, and give them all 
the prizes. 

" What is the paltry emolument of two-thirds of 
prizes to this vast continent.* If so poor a resource 
is essential to its independency, we are, in sober 
sadness, involved in a woful predicament, and our 

* Congress appropriated two-thirds of all prizes to the Govern- 
ment, leaving but one-third to be divided among the captors. 



42 . PAUL JONES. 

ruin is fast approaching. The situation of America 
is new in the annals of mankind. Her affairs cry 
haste ; and speed must answer them. Trifles there- 
fore ought to be wholly disregarded, as being, in the 
old vulgar proverb, * penny wise and pound foolish.* 

'' If our enemies, with the best established and 
most formidable navy in the universe, have found it 
expedient to assign all prizes to the captors, how 
much more is such policy essential to our infant 
fleet ? But I need use no arguments to convince 
you of the necessity of making our navy equal, if not 
superior to theirs." 

Our navy was so small and our impoverishment 
so great that Congress could furnish Captain Jones 
with but two vessels for his important expedition to 
Cape Breton. The Alfred and the Providence sailed 
together from Newport harbor, on the 2d of Novem- 
ber, 1776. This was so late in the season, to embark 
for those high latitudes, that Captain Jones, discour- 
aged by the delays which had been encountered, was 
not very sanguine as to the success of the expedi- 
tion. 

The first night he cast anchor at Tarpauling 
Cove, near Nantucket. Here he found a privateer 
belonging to Rhode Island, inward bound. He was 
in great want of men. Many sailors, for reasons 
which we have already given, had deserted the regu- 



THE INFANT NAVY. 43 

lar service to enlist on board the privateers. Cap- 
tain Jones sent his boat on board the privateer to 
search for deserters from the navy. Four men were 
found, carefully concealed. They were taken on 
board the Alfred. This led to a law-suit, which sub- 
sequently subjected Captain Jones to considerable 
trouble. Louisbourg, on the eastern coast of the 
Island of Cape Breton, had a commodious harbor, and 
was then a seaport of considerable importance. Just 
off the harbor Captain Jones fortunately encountered 
an English brig, the Mellish, partially armed, and 
laden with a large amount of clothing, thick and 
warm, for the British troops in Canada. The brig 
made a little resistance, but was speedily captured, 
with all her precious cargo. Soon after this he cap- 
tured a large fishing-vessel, which quite replenished 
his meagre store of provisions. 

The next day a violent snow-storm darkened the 
air, with a severe gale blowing from the northwest. 
Captain Hacker, in command of the Providence, 
either frightened by the inclement weather or trea- 
sonably disposed, took advantage of the darkness of 
the ensuing night to bear away south, and return to 
Newport. The Alfred was thus left alone to prose- 
cute the now impossible enterprise. 

Captain Jones sent his two prizes, the brig Mellish 
and the fishing-vessel, to steer for any American 



44 PAUL JONES. 

port which could be reached. The fishing-vessel 
was recaptured by the English. But the MelHsh 
was successfully carried into the harbor of Dartmouth, 
Massachusetts. The clothing, with which she was 
laden, proved to be of incalculable use to the army 
of Washington. The Continental troops, thinly clad, 
had been suffering severely from the freezing blasts 
of winter. 

In the midst of smothering snow-storms and 
fierce gales, Captain Jones again entered the harbor 
of Canso. A large English transport, laden with 
provisions, was aground, near the entrance to the 
harbor. He sent his boats to apply the torch. The 
whole fabric, with all its contents, soon vanished in 
flame and smoke. A large oil warehouse, contain- 
ing a large quantity of material for the whale and 
cod fishery, was also consigned to consuming fire. 
He then continued his voyage along the eastern 
coast of Cape Breton. 

In a dense fog, not far from Louisbourg, he fell in 
with quite a fleet of coal vessels, from the crown 
mines in Sydney, under convoy of the English fri- 
gate Flora. Favored by the fog, and unseen by the 
frigate, he captured three of the largest of these ves- 
sels. Two days after this he encountered a British 
privateer from Liverpool, which he took, after but a 
slight conflict. Thick masses of ice filled the harbor 



THE INFANT NAVY. 45 

adjacent to the coal mines. He had one hundred 
and fifty prisoners on board the Alfred. His water- 
casks were nearly empty, and his provisions mostly 
consumed. Five prize vessels were in his train. It 
was clearly his duty to convoy them, as soon as pos- 
sible, into some safe port. He therefore commenced 
his return. 

The little fleet kept together, guarded by the 
Alfred, and the Liverpool privateer, which, being 
armed for battle. Captain Jones had manned and 
given into the charge of Lieutenant Saunders. Just 
on the edge of St. George's Bank, the British fri- 
gate Milford was again encountered. It was late in 
the afternoon when her topsails first appeared above 
the horizon. All the vessels of Captain Jones's fleet 
were on the starboard tack. It was evident that, as 
the wind was then, the Milford could not overtake 
them before night, which was close at hand. He 
signalled his vessels to crowd with all sail, on the 
same tack, through the night, without paying any 
regard to the lights which he might show. 

After dark both he and the captured privateer 
tacked, and thus entered upon a different course 
from that of the rest of the fleet. To decoy the 
frigate to follow him, and thus draw it away from 
the prizes, he carried toplights until the morning 
The Milford gave him hot chase. When the morn- 



46 PAUL JONES. 

ing light dawned upon the ocean the prizes were no- 
where to be seen. The stratagem had thus far 
proved eminently successful. All that now remain- 
ed for Captain Jones was to make his own escape 
with the Alfred, and the privateer under Lieutenant 
Saunders. The privateer, through mismanagement, 
was overtaken and captured. A terrible storm, 
which had been for some time brewing, in the after- 
noon lashed the ocean, and amid clouds and dark- 
ness and foaming surges the Alfred made her es- 
cape. 

On the 15th of December, 1776, Captain Jones 
entered the harbor of Boston. He had then, on 
board the Alfred, provisions and water barely suffi- 
cient for two days. To his great gratification he 
found that his prizes had all safely reached port. 
The welcome news of the capture of the cargo of 
clothing, in the Mellish, reached Washington just 
before he recrossed the Delaware and captured the 
British garrison at Trenton. Captain Jones, in his 
letter to the Marine Committee, writes : 

*' This prize is, I believe, the most valuable which 
has been taken by the American arms. She made 
some defence, but it was trifling. The loss will dis- 
tress the enemy more than can be easily imagined, 
as the clothing on board of her is the last intended 
to be sent out for Canada this season, and what has 



THE INFANT NAVY. 47 

preceded it is already taken. The situation of Bur- 
goyne's army must soon become insupportable." 

Captain Jones was so impressed with the impor- 
tance of this capture that he had resolved, at every 
hazard, to sink the vessel rather than permit it 
again to fall into the hands of the enemy. He was 
delayed some time in Boston in disposing of his 
prizes and in getting rid of his prisoners, or, as he 
phrases it, of being delivered of the " honorable 
office of a jail-keeper." 

He passed the winter in Boston, consecrating all 
his energies to the creation of a navy worthy of the 
rising republic. Though his feelings were deeply 
wounded, and his sense of justice greatly outraged, by 
being, for political reasons, superseded in command 
by men who were totally unqualified for naval office, 
and who had never yet served, he did not allow 
these considerations, though he remonstrated indig- 
nantly against the unjust acts, to abate, in the slight- 
est degree, his patriotic zeal. The suggestions he 
made the Marine Committee have so commended 
themselves to the judgment of those in command 
that nearly all of them have been gradually adopted. 
A few extracts from these long communications will 
reflect much light upon the character of this remark- 
able man. 

" None other," he writes, " than a gentleman, as 



48 PAUL JONES. 

well as a seaman in theory and practice, is qualified 
to support the character of an officer in the navy. 
Nor is any man fit to command a ship of war, who 
is not capable of communicating his ideas on paper, 
in language that becomes his rank." 

Again he writes, in reference to the great injustice 
which he had experienced, " When I entered into the 
service I was not actuated by motives of self-interest. 
I stepped forth as a free citizen of the world, in 
defence of the violated rights of mankind, and not 
in search of riches, whereof, I thank God, I inherit a 
sufficiency. But I should prove my degeneracy were 
I not, in the highest degree, tenacious of my rank 
and seniority. As a gentleman I can yield this point 
only to persons of superior abilities and merit. Un- 
der such persons it would be my highest ambition to 
learn." 

Again he wrote to Hon. Mr. Morris: ** As the 
regulations of the navy are of the utmost conse- 
quence, you will not think it presumption if, with the 
utmost diffidence, I venture to communicate to you 
such hints as, in my judgment, will promote its honor 
and good government. I could heartily wish that 
every commissioned officer was to be previously exam- 
ined. To my certain knowledge there are persons 
who have already crept into commission, without 



THE INFANT NAVY. 49 

abilities or fit qualification. I am, myself, far from 
desiring to be excused." 

After a toilsome winter of many annoyances he 
repaired, early in April, 1777, to Philadelphia, then 
the seat of the Colonial Government. Prominent 
members of Congress, when their attention was called 
to the subject, admitted that Captain Jones had been 
wrongfully treated. Mr. Hancock, President of 
Congress, assured him that the injustice of supersed- 
ing him was not intentional, but was the result of a 
multiplicity of business. He said to him : 

" The injustice of that regulation shall make but 
a nominal and temporary difference. In the mean 
time you may be assured that no navy officer stands 
higher in the opinion of Congress. The matter of 
rank shall, as soon as possible, be arranged. In the 
mean time you shall have a separate command, until 
better provision can he made for you." 

Captain Jones urged that there should be a 
parity of rank between the officers of the navy and 
the army. He proposed that, in accordance with the 
British establishment, which was certainly the best 
regulated navy in the world, an admiral should rank 
with a general, a vice-admiral with a lieutenant- 
general, a rear-admiral with a major-general, a 
commodore with a brigadier-general, a captain with 
a colonel, a master and commander with a lieutenant- 



50 PAUL JONES. 

colonel, a lieutenant commanding with a major, and 
a lieutenant in the navy with a captain of horse, foot, 
or marines. 

He also urged strenuously, as an object demand- 
ing immediate attention, that commissioners of 
dock-yards should be established to superintend the 
building and outfit of all ships of war. They were 
to be invested with power to appoint deputies, and 
to provide and keep in constant readiness all naval 
stores. It speaks well for the intelligence and sound 
judgment of Captain Jones that, though he was a 
young officer of but one year's standing, nearly every 
suggestion he made was subsequently adopted. 

Soon after this he received an appointment from 
the Marine Committee, to sail from Portsmouth, 
New Hampshire, in the French ship Amphitrite, to 
France, with a letter to the American Commissioners 
there, ordering them to purchase as fine a ship as 
could be obtained in Europe, for Captain Jones. 
He was to take out a crew with him, to man the 
ship, from Portsmouth. The letter the Marine Com- 
mittee wrote to the Commissioners was very urgent, 
calling upon them to strain every nerve to accom- 
plish the end as soon as possible. 

''We hope," they wrote, "you may not delay 
this business one moment ; but purchase, in such 
port or place in Europe as it can be done with most ^ 



THE INFANT NAVY. 5 1 

convenience and despatch, a fine fast-sailing frigate 
or larger ship. You must make it a point not to 
disappoint Captain Jones's wishes and expectations 
on this occasion." 

On the 14th of June, 1777, Congress established 
the national flag. It was voted '^ that the flag of 
the United States should be thirteen stripes, alter- 
nate red and white ; that the Union be thirteen 
stars, white, in a blue field, representing a new con- 
stellation." 

The French commander of the Amphitrite, not- 
withstanding the sympathies of France were then so 
cordially with the colonies, very reasonably objected 
to taking a step so decidedly belligerent as to trans- 
port a crew to France, to engage in direct hostilities 
against English commerce. The plan therefore had 
to be abandoned. England and France were then 
at peace. Soon, however, war commenced between 
them. 

Congress then appointed Jones to the command 
of the ship Ranger, which had recently been built in 
Portsmouth. He was placed in command of this our 
first frigate, on the same day when Congress desig- 
nated the Stars and the Stripes as our national flag. 
Consequently Paul Jones, who first unfurled the ban- 
ner of the Pine Tree, over the little sloop Providence, 
now enjoyed the distinguished honor of being the 



52 TAUL JONES. 

first to spread to the breeze that beautiful banner, 
the Stars and the Stripes, now renowned throughout 
the world, and around whose folds more than forty 
millions of freemen are ever ready, with enthusiasm, 
to rally. 

The Ranger was not prepared for sea until the 
middle of October. The ship mounted but eighteen 
guns, though originally intended for twenty-six. 
She sailed from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on 
the 1st of November, 1777, and, after a month's voy- 
age, entered the harbor of Nantes on the 2d of 
December. This noble city, situated on the river 
Loire, about thirty-four miles from its mouth, and 
two hundred miles from Paris, was then one of tiie 
most important seaports in France. Ships of two 
hundred tons burden could cast anchor in the broad, 
clear, deep river. An immense amout of shipping 
crowded her quays, one of which was a mile and a 
half in length. 

On the voyage, soon after passing the Western 
Islands, he encountered many vessels, but none 
which proved to be English, until he was approach- 
ing the Channel. He then overtook a fleet of ten 
British vessels, under a strong convoy. Captain 
Jones exerted all his nautical skill to detach some 
of these from the convoy, but was unable to succeed. 
He, however, soon captured two brigantines, or small 



^ 



THE INFANT NAVY. 53 

brigs, laden with fruit from Malaga, bound to Lon- 
don. Both of these prizes he sent into French ports. 

Upon his arrival at Nantes, he forwarded the let- 
ter which he had received from the Marine Commit- 
tee of Congress, to the American Commissioners at 
Paris, Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur 
Lee. In this letter. Captain Jones writes : 

" It is my first and favorite wish to be employed 
in active and enterprising service, where there is a 
prospect of rendering acceptable services to America. 
The singular honor which Congress has done me, by 
their generous conduct, has inspired sentiments of 
gratitude which I shall carry with me to the grave. 
And if a life of services devoted to America, can 
be made instrumental in securing its independence, 
I shall regard the continuance of such approbation 
as an honor far superior to what kings even could 
bestow." 

He urged that since our navy was so feeble that 
it could not cope with the powerful armament of 
England, our only feasible course was to send out 
small squadrons, and surprise defenceless situations. 
This was the course adopted. By invitation of the 
Commissioners, Captain Jones repaired to Paris, 
where he met with a severe disappointment. This 
is explained in the following extract from his first 
despatch from Nantes 



54 P^L JONES. 

" The Commissioners had provided for me one of 
the finest frigates that was ever built, calculated for 
thirty guns on one deck, and capable of carrying 
thirty-six pounders. But they were under the neces- 
sity of giving her up, on account of some difficulties 
they met at court." 

The failure of this plan was owing to the vigilance 
of the British minister at Amsterdam. He discov- 
ered the secret of her ownership and destination, and 
remonstrated so effectually as to thwart the plan. 
He then decided to put to sea with the Ranger, as 
soon as possible. The Commissioners addressed to 
him the following instructions : 

" As it is not in our power to procure you such a 
ship as you expected, we advise you, after equipping 
the Ranger in the best manner for the cruise you 
propose, that you shall proceed with her in the 
manner you shall judge best for distressing the ene- 
mies of the United States, by sea or otherwise, con- 
sistent with the laws of war, and the terms of your 
commission." 

On the loth of Feburary, 1778, Captain Jones, 
in the Ranger, sailed down the Loire, and coasted 
along in a northerly direction to Brest, then the 
great naval depot of France, enjoying one of the 
finest harbors in the world. In this month a treaty 
of alliance between France and the United States 



THE INFANT NAVY. 55 

was signed at Paris. France was the first nation to 
recognize the independence of the United States, 
and to recognize the Congress of the thirteen colonies 
as a legitimate Government. 

France promptly engaged in fitting out a naval 
expedition to assist the American colonies. 



CHAPTER III. 

Bearding the British Lion. 

Aid from France. — Plan for the Destruction of the British Fleet. — 
The American Flag Saluted. — Bold Movement of Captain Jones. 
— Cruise along the Shores of England. — Capture of Prizes. — 
Salutary Lessons given to England. — Operations in the Frith of 
Clyde. — At Carrickfergus. — Attempt upon the Drake. — Burning 
the Shipping at Whitehaven. — Capture of the Plate of Lord 
Selkirk. 

France, upon recognizing the independence of 
the United States and entering into an alHance with 
our Government, promptly engaged in fitting out a 
naval expedition to assist the American patriots who 
were so heroically .struggling for freedom. Captain 
Jones immediately wrote a letter to the Commission- 
ers in Paris, suggesting a plan of operations for the 
French fleet, which was placed under the command 
of Count d'Estaing. The count was a brave man, an 
able officer, and was heartily devoted to the cause of 
the feeble colonies. The plan Captain Jones recom- 
mended was eventually adopted. Had it been at 
once carried into execution, it would probably have 




PAUL JONES EAISING FIRST AMERICAN FLAG. 



BEARDING THE BRITISH LION. 57 

SO crippled the English as to have brought the war 
to a speedy termination. 

Nearly the whole British fleet, sent to operate 
against the colonies, was in the Delaware. It had 
abundant supplies for the British army, which, almost 
without hindrance, was ranging the country, plun- 
dering and burning. The plan proposed was, that 
Count d'Estaing, with the superior force which he 
had under his command, should fall suddenly upon 
the British fleet under Lord Howe, and destroy it, 
or, at least block it up in the Delaware, with all the 
transport ships under its convoy. This could then 
have easily been done. 

But unfortunately the fleet, instead of being fitted 
out at Brest, on the Atlantic coast, whence it could 
have a speedy voyage across the Atlantic, was got 
ready at Toulon, a Mediterranean port, requiring a 
much longer voyage. Just before the fleet arrived. 
Lord Howe, aware of his danger, had effected his 
escape. In those days the French fleet could have 
arrived almost as soon as the intelligence of the alli- 
ance had reached these shores. In a letter to M. 
De Sartine, the French Minister of Marine, Captain 
Jones subsequently writes : 

" Had Count d'Estaing arrived in the Delaware a 
few days sooner, he might have made a glorious and 
most easy conquest. Many successful projects may 
3* 



58 PAff- JONES. 

be adopted from the hints which I had the honor 
to draw up. And if I can furnish more, or execute 
any of those already furnished, so as to distress and 
humble the common enemy, it will afford me the 
truest pleasure." 

Captain Jones, on his voyage from Nantes to 
Brest, convoyed some American merchant vessels 
as far as Quiberon Bay. Thence they were to be 
convoyed to America by a French fleet, commanded 
by Admiral La Motte Piquet. Here, for the first 
time, the Stars and Stripes of our Union received 
the honor of a national salute. John Paul Jones 
managed the somewhat delicate affair with the 
instincts of a gentleman, and the sensitiveness of an 
accomplished naval officer, conscious that the honor 
of the infant nation was, in some degree, intrusted 
to his guardianship. I give the interesting event in 
his own words. In a letter to the Marine Com- 
mittee, dated February 22, 1778, he writes : 

^* I am happy in having it in my power to con- 
gratulate you on my having seen the American flag, 
for the first time, recognized in the fullest and com- 
pletest manner by the flag of France. I was off their 
bay the 13th instant, and sent my boat in, the next 
day, to know if the admiral would return my salute, 
lie answered that he would return to me, as the 
senior American Continental ofiicer in Europe, the 



^ 



BEARDING THE BRmSH LION. 59 

same salute which he was authorized, by his court 
to return to an admiral of Holland, or any other 
republic ; which was four guns less than the salute 
given. I hesitated at this, for I had demanded gun 
for gun. 

"Therefore I anchored in the entrance of the 
bay, at a distance from the French fleet. But, after 
a very particular inquiry, on the 14th, finding that 
he had really told the truth, I was induced to accept 
of his offer, the more so as it was, in fact, an 
acknowledgment of American independence. The 
wind being contrary and blowing hard, it was after 
sunset before the Ranger got near enough to salute 
La Motte Piquet with thirteen guns, which he re- 
turned with nine. However, to put the matter 
beyond a doubt, I did not suffer the Independence 
to salute till ne.^t morning, when I sent the admiral 
word that I would sail through his fleet in the brig, 
and would salute him in open day. He was exceed- 
ingly pleased, and he returned the comphment also 
with nine guns." 

The Independence here alluded to, it is said, 
was a privateer which had been fitted out to sail 
under the orders of Captain Jones. His sailing 
through the French fleet was characteristic of the 
man, as he fully appreciated, at this time, the im- 
portance of this interchange of national courtesies, 



6o V^m. JONES. 

and the Importance that it should be so emphatic- 
ally done that there could be no denial of it. Thus 
he who first raised the American Pine-Tree flag to 
the topmast of the Alfred, and who first unfurled 
the national banner from the Ranger, now enjoyed 
the honor of being the first to secure for that flag 
a national salute. The times have changed. The 
infant republic has become one of the most power- 
ful nations on the globe. There is no Government 
now which hesitates to return, in salute of our 
national banner, gun for gun. 

On the loth of April, Captain Jones, in the Ran- 
ger, sailed from Brest. It was his intention to strike 
a blow first upon some unprotected point on the 
south side of England. It was indeed a bold and 
chivalric movement for the little Ranger, with her 
eighteen guns, to plunge into the very heart of the 
British Channel, which was crowded with the mas- 
sive seventy-fours of Britain's proud navy. England 
was discharging the broadsides of her invincible fleet 
upon our defenceless towns, and was landing her boats' 
crews to apply the torch to our peaceful villages. 
Not a fishing-boat could leave a cove without dan- 
ger of capture and the imprisonment of all the crew. 

Little did the British Government imagine that 
any commander of an American vessel would have 
the audacity to approach even within sight of her 



BEARDING THE BRITISH LION 6l 

shores. It was the main design of Captain Jones to 
punish England for the atrocities she was so cruelly 
perpetrating upon us — and to punish her in kind. 
On the loth of August he launched forth, from the 
magnificent harbor of Brest, and directed his course 
almost due north, for Land's End, the extreme south- 
ern cape of the island of Great Britain. The dis- 
tance across, at this point, is about one hundred and 
fifty miles. 

About thirty miles off the southern coast of Eng- 
land, in a southwest direction, there is a group of 
islands called the Scilly Islands. Captain Jones ran his 
vessel between them and Cape Clear, within full view 
of the shores of England, and where the flash of his 
guns could be seen and the thunders of his cannon 
distinctly heard on those shores. Opposing winds 
and a rough sea so impeded his progress that he did 
not gain sight of England's coast until the 14th. Then 
he descried a merchant-brig. He bore down upon 
her and captured her. The brig was freighted with 
flax, and was bound from Ireland to Ostend, in Bel- 
gium. As the freight was of no value, and Captain 
Jones did not wish to encumber himself with pri- 
soners, the crew were sent ashore in the boats and 
the brig was scuttled and sunk. 

These tidings must have created a strange sensa- 
tion, as they spread like wildfire throughout Eng- 



62 PaWl JONES. 

land. It must have roused the whole British navy, 
to wreak vengeance upon the intrepid voyager. He 
then entered St. George's Channel, which separates 
Southern England from Ireland. When almost with- 
in sight of the spires of Dublin he encountered, on 
the 17th of August, a large London ship. He cap- 
tured her. Her cargo consisted of a variety of valua- 
ble merchandise. The crew were sent ashore. The 
prize he manned and sent back to Brest. 

Thus far dense clouds had darkened their way, 
and rough winds had ploughed the seas, but now the 
weather changed. The skies became fair and the 
wind favorable. He sailed rapidly along into the 
Irish Sea, and passed by the Isle of Man, intending to 
make a descent at Whitehaven, with whose harbor 
and surroundings he from childhood had been fami- 
liar. About ten o'clock in the evening of the 17th, 
he was off the harbor, with a boat's crew of picked 
men ready to enter and set fire to the shipping. 
But the wind, which had been blowing strong during 
the afternoon, by eleven o'clock increased to a gale, 
blowing directly on shore, and raising such a heavy 
sea that the boats could not leave the ships. Dur- 
ing the night the storm so increased, threatening to 
drive the vessel upon the rocks, that it became neces- 
sary to crowd all sail, and put out to sea so as to 
clear the land. ^ 



BEARDING THE BRITISH LION. 63 

The next morning the storm abated, and the 
Ranger was near Glestine Bay, just off the southern 
coast of Scotland. A revenue wherry hove in sight. 
It was the custom of the revenue boat to board 
all merchant vessels in search of contraband goods. 
As the Ranger concealed, as much as possible, 
all warlike appearance. Captain Jones hoped 
that the wherry, which was one of the swiftest of 
sailers, would come alongside, so that he might 
effect her capture. But it seems that the tidings of 
the Ranger had reached the ears of the officers of 
the governmental boat. After examining the vessel 
carefully with their glasses, they crowded on all sail, to 
escape. The Ranger pursued, opening upon the af- 
frighted boat a severe cannonade. The balls bound- 
ed over the waves, and the explosions reverberated 
amid the cliffs of Scotland, but the wherry escaped. 

The next morning, April 19th, when near the ex- 
treme southern cape of Scotland, called the Mull of 
Galloway, he overtook one of the merchant schoon- 
ers of the enemy, from which he took what he 
wanted, sent the crew ashore, and sunk the vessel. 
By a just retribution he was thus chastising England 
for the crimes she was committing on the American 
coast. Hudibras writes : 

" No man e'er felt the halter draw 
With good opinion of the law." 



64 tWjl 



JONES. 



England was astonished and enraged in finding 
the laws of naval warfare which she had enacted, 
and had so long practised with impunity upon all 
other nations all around the globe, now brought 
home to herself. She called Paul Jones all manner 
of hard names. He was a beggar, a thief, a trai- 
tor, a highway robber, a pirate. He was thus de- 
nounced for doing that, in the English and Irish Chan- 
nel, which England's fleet was doing all along the coast 
of America. And yet it was heroic in Jones thus to 
brave all the terrors of the British navy, while it was 
ignoble and mean for that proud navy to plunder 
and burn the few unprotected vessels of the feeble 
colonies struggling for existence in the New World. 
England had long made her banqueting-halls 
resound with the song, 

" Britannia needs no bulwarks 
To frown along the steep ; 
Her march is on the mountain wave, 
Her home is on the deep." 

It was the noble mission of Paul Jones to teach 
Britannia that the arm of the avenger could reach 
her even in her own Channel, and in her own har- 
bors. Thus England was compelled to drink of the 
poisoned cup which she was forcing to the lips of 
others. 

Upon the western coast of Scotland, about fifty 



BEARDING THE BRITISH LION. 65 

miles north of the Mull of Galloway, there was a ca- 
pacious harbor called Lochryan, or Lake Ryan. 
Captain Jones learned from his captives that there 
was there a fleet often or twelve English merchant 
vessels, and also the tender of a man-of-war, which 
had on board a large number of impressed seamen, 
who were to be forced into the British navy. It was 
not improbable that many of these were American 
citizens, who had been seized in our merchant or 
fishing vessels, and who would thus be compelled to 
work the guns of Great Britain against their own 
countrymen. " I thought this an enterprise," 
writes Paul Jones, " worthy of my attention." 

Indeed it was. He spread his sails for Lochryan. 
The wind was fair, so that he could run into the bay, 
speedily apply the torch, kindle the whole fleet into 
flame, and then run out before a sufficient force 
could be collected to prevent his escape. But just 
as he reached the entrance of the bay, and every- 
thing was in readiness for the successful prosecution 
of his enterprise, the wind changed, and blew with 
great fierceness directly into the bay. Thus, though 
he could easily effect his entrance, he could not sail 
out from the bay until the wind changed. He 
might therefore be caught in a trap. He was thus 
constrained to abandon the project. 

About sixty miles north of Lochryan is the 



^ PAUL JONES. 

Frith of Clyde, whose river is the most important 
stream in the west of Scotland. Captain Jones see- 
ing upon his lee bow a cutter, or small sloop-rigged 
vessel, beloncfincf as a tender to a man-of-war, steer- 
ing for the Clyde, gave chase. But when he reached 
the remarkable rock of Ailsa, finding that the cutter 
was outsailing him, he abandoned the chase. In the 
evening he fell in with a merchant sloop, which he 
sunk. 

The next day, which was the 2 1st, he entered 
the Bay of Carrickfergus, on the eastern coast of Ire- 
land. At the western extremity of the bay lies the 
city of Belfast, which occupies the first rank among 
the commercial marts of Ireland. The fortified 
town of Carrickfergus is situated upon the northern 
shore. A British ship of war, the Drake, mounting 
twenty guns, was at anchor in the bay. Thoroughly 
armed and manned, she was a formidable antago- 
nist for the Ranger to attack. As vessels of all 
sizes were continually coming and going in this 
great thoroughfare, and as the Ranger carefully 
avoided all warlike appearance, no suspicion of her 
formidable character was excited on board the Drake. 
Jones therefore cast anchor, preparing to make his 
attack in the night. I Avill give the result in his 
own words: 

** My plan was to overlay her cable, and to fall^ 



I 



BEARDING THE BRITISH LION. 67 

upon her bow, so as to have all her decks open and 
exposed to our musketry. At the same time it was 
our intention to have secured the enemy by grap- 
plings, so that, had they cut their cables, they would 
not thereby have attained an advantage. The wind 
was high, and unfortunately the anchor was not let 
go so soon as the order was given ; so that the Ran- 
ger was brought to upon the enemy's quarter, at 
the distance of half a cable's length. 

"We had made no warlike appearance. Of 
course, we had given no alarm. This determined me 
to cut immediately, which might appear as if the 
cable had parted. At the same time it enabled me, 
after making a tack out of the Loch, to return with 
the same advantage which I had at first. I was, 
however, prevented from returning, as I with diffi- 
culty weathered the light-house on the leeside, and 
as the gale increased. The weather now became so 
very stormy and severe, and the sea ran so high, that 
I was obliged to take shelter under the south shore 
of Scotland." 

P The North Channel, which separates Ireland from 
Scotland, is at this point about thirty miles wide. 
The next morning the sun rose in a cloudless sky. 
It was bitterly cold in those northern latitudes. 
Captain Jones was on the same parallel with New- 

1 foundland. From the deck of his vessel he could 



68 PAUL JONES. 

clearly discern the coasts of England, Scotland, and 
Ireland. A white mantle of snow covered the hills 
and valleys as far as the eye could extend. He de- 
cided to direct his course to the shores of England, 
and to make another attempt upon the shipping in 
the harbor of Whitehaven. The wind became very 
light, and it was not until midnight that he reached 
the entrance to the harbor. For the hazardous en- 
terprise of penetrating a harbor defended by two 
batteries, he manned two boats with volunteers, 
fifteen men in each. There were in the harbor two 
hundred and twenty vessels, large and small. The 
tide was out, and many of these vessels aground. 
About one hundred and fifty of them were on the 
south side of the harbor adjoining the town. The 
remainder were on the north side. 

Captain Jones had command of one of the boats. 
Lieutenant Wallingford was intrusted with the 
other. Jones supplied Wallingford with the neces- 
sary combustibles to set fire to the shipping on the 
north side. With fifteen men, armed only with pis- 
tols and cutlasses, he set out to capture two English 
forts on the south side, and then to set fire to the 
shipping there. The garrisons of these forts had no 
more apprehension of an attack from the despised 
Americans, than Gibraltar fears assault from some 



BEARDING THE BRITISH LION. 69 

feeble tribe in Southern Asia with whom England 
may chance to be at war. 

In consequence of the unfortunate delay, they 
did not reach the first fort until just as the morning 
was beginning to dawn. Most of the soldiers were 
soundly asleep in the guard-house. There were a 
few drowsy sentinels dozing at their posts. Jones, 
with his heroic little band, silently clambered over 
the ramparts. The terrified sentinels, not knowing 
what was coming, rushed into the guard-house. 
Jones quietly locked them in, spiked every gun, and 
then rushed forward to the next battery, which was 
distant about a quarter of a mile. Here he success- 
fully repeated his achievement, so that not a gun 
frcftn either of the batteries could harm his boats. 

He looked eagerly across the harbor, expecting 
to see the bursting forth of the flames. It was now 
broad day ; but no sign of flame or smoke was to be 
seen. To his great disappointment, the boat under 
Lieutenant Wallingford had crossed to the south 
side, having accomplished nothing. The party 
seemed confused and embarrassed, and made the 
very extraordinary statement that their torches 
went out just as they were ready to set fire to the 
ships ! 

The failure was probably caused by sheer cow- 
ardice. And it must be admitted that it was 



70 PAUL JONES. 

indeed one of the most desperate of enterprises. 
These fifteen men, having crossed an ocean three 
thousand miles wide, had penetrated the heart of a 
British harbor, to apply the torch to seventy vessels. 

The crews could not have amounted to less 
than ten men, on an average, to each vessel. Thus 
the British sailors alone in that half of the harbor, 
would amount to seven hundred men. The assail- 
ants, it will be remembered, amounted to but fifteen 
men, in a frail boat, armed only with swords and pis- 
tols. Even the bravest might recoil from such odds. 
But as these men had volunteered for the enterprise, 
and knew all its perils, it was the basest poltroon- 
ery in them to prove recreant at the crisis of the 
expedition. 

The torches which Captain Jones's boat party 
carried, had also, by some strange fatahty, all burned 
out. Captain Jones, however, obtained a light from 
a neighboring house, entered a large ship, from 
which the crew fled, and deliberately built a fire in 
the steerage. This ship was closely surrounded by 
at least a hundred and fifty vessels lying side by 
side, and all aground. Captain Jones, to make the 
conflagration certain, found a barrel of tar, and 
poured it upon the kindling. The flames soon 
burst from all the hatchways, caught the rigging, 
and, in fiery wreaths, circled to the mast-head. 



BEARDING THE BRITISH LION. 7 1 

" The inhabitants," writes Captain Jones, " began 
to appear in thousands, and individuals ran hastily 
toward us. I stood between them and the ship on 
fire, with a pistol in my hand, and ordered them to 
retire, which they did with precipitation. The sun 
was a full hour's march above the horizon, and, as 
sleep no longer ruled the world, it was time to 
retire. We reembarked without opposition, having 
released a number of prisoners, as our boats could 
not carry them. After all my people had embarked, 
I stood upon the pier, for a considerable space, yet 
no person advanced. I saw all the eminences round 
the town covered with the amazed inhabitants." 

When the boats had been rowed some distance 
from the shore, the English began to run to their 
forts, to open fire from the great guns. To their 
surprise they found the garrisons locked up in the 
guard-houses, and the cannon all spiked. After 
some delay they found one or two cannon on the 
beach, which were dismounted, and which had not 
been spiked. These they hastily loaded and fired ; 
but with such ill-directed aim that the shot all fell 
wide of their mark. Captain Jones's men, in deri- 
sion, fired their pistols, returning the salute. 

If the boats could have entered the harbor a few 
hours earlier, the success would doubtless have been 
complete, and not a vessel would have escaped the 



72 PAUL JONES. 

flames. ** But what was done," writes Captain 
Jones, *' is sufficient to show that not all their boasted 
navy can protect their own coasts ; and that the 
scenes of distress, which they have occasioned in 
Arnerica, may be soon brought home to their own 
door." 

The Ranger now struck across the broad mouth of 
Solway Frith, to St. Mary's Island, on the Scottish 
shore, in Kirkcudbright Bay. Here Lord Selkirk 
had his residence, in a fine mansion. It will be 
remembered that the father of Paul Jones had 
been attached to his household. The British were 
shutting up our most illustrious men in the hulks 
of prison ships, and treating them with barbarity 
which would have disgraced savages. Captain Jones 
deemed it of the utmost importance, as a measure 
of humanity, to seize some distinguished English- 
man and hold him as a hostage, to secure the better 
treatment of our own noble men who had fallen into 
the enemy's hands. For this patriotic movement 
the English press denouneed him in terms of un- 
measured abuse. The motive which influenced him 
was an exalted one. And he merits the highest 
encomiums for the manner in which he conducted 
the enterprise. In justice to Captain Jones, I feel 
bound to give the narrative in his own words. It is 
contained in letter which he wrote to the Countess ^ 



BEARDING THE BRITISH LION. 73 

of Selkirk, with whom he was personally acquainted, 
immediately after the Ranger returned from its 
cruise to Brest. 

" Ranger, Brest, May 8. 

" To THE Countess of Selkirk. 

" Madam — It cannot be too much lamented 
that, in the profession of arms, the officer of fine feel- 
ing and of real sensibility should be under the neces- 
sity of winking at any action of persons under his 
command which his heart cannot approve. But the 
reflection is doubly severe, when he finds himself 
obliged, in appearance, to countenance such actions 
by his authority. 

*' This hard case was mine when, on the 23d of 
April last, I landed on St. Mary's Isle. Knowing 
Lord Selkirk's interest with his king, and esteem- 
ing, as I do, his private character, I wished to make 
him the happy instrument of alleviating the horrors 
of hopeless captivity, when the brave are over- 
powered and made prisoners of war. 

" It was perhaps fortunate for you, madam, that 
he was from home ; for it was my intention to 
have taken him on board the Ranger, and to have 
detained him until, through his means, a general and 
fair exchange of prisoners, as well in Europe as in 
America, had been effected. 

** When I was informed, by some men whom I 



74 PAUL JONES. 

met at landing, that his lordship was absent, I 
walked back to my boat determined to leave the 
island. On the way, however, some officers who 
were with me, could not forbear expressing their 
discontent. They said that, in America, no delicacy 
was shown by the English, who took away all sorts 
of movable property ; setting fire not only to towns 
and to the houses of the rich, without distinction, 
but not even sparing the wretched hamlets and 
milch cows of the poor and helpless, at the approach 
of an inclement winter. 

" That party had been with me, the same morn- 
ing, at Whitehaven. Some complaisance was there- 
fore their due. I had but a moment to think how I 
might gratify them, and, at the same time, do your 
ladyship the least injury. I charged the two officers 
to permit none of the seamen to enter the house, or 
to hurt anything about it ; to treat you, madam, 
with the utmost respect ; to accept of the plate 
which was offered ; and to come away, without mak- 
ing a search or demanding anything else. 

'' I am induced to believe that I was punctually 
obeyed : since I am informed that the plate, which 
they brought away, is far short of the quantity ex- 
pressed in the inventory which accompanied it. I 
have gratified my men. And when the plate is sold 
I shall become its purchaser, and will gratify my own 



BEARDING THE BRITISH LION. 75 

feelings by restoring it to you, by such conveyance 
as you shall please to direct. 

" Had the Earl been on board the Ranger the 
following evening, he would have seen the awful 
pomp and dreadful carnage of a sea engagement ; 
both affording ample subject for the pencil, as well 
as melancholy reflection to the contemplative mind. 
Humanity starts back from such scenes of horror, 
and cannot sufficiently execrate the vile promoters 
of this detestable war. 

" * For they, 'twas they unsheathed the ruthless blade. 
And Heaven shall ask the havoc it has made.' 

** The British ship-of-war Drake, mounting twenty 
guns, with more than her full complement of officers 
and men, was our opponent. The ships met, and 
the advantage was disputed, with great fortitude on 
each side, for an hour and four minutes, when the 
gallant commander of the Drake fell, and victory 
declared in favor of the Ranger. The amiable lieu- 
tenant lay mortally wounded ; a melancholy demon- 
stration of the uncertainity of human prospects, and 
of the sad reverses of fortune which an hour can 
produce. I buried them in a spacious grave, with 
the honors due to the memory of the brave. 

" Though I have drawn my sword, in the present 
generous struggle for the rights of man, yet I am 



'J^ PAUL JONES. 

not in arms as an American, nor am I in pursuit of 
riches. My fortune is liberal enough, having no 
wife nor family, and having lived long enough to 
know that riches cannot insure happiness. I profess 
myself a citizen of the world, totally unfettered by 
the little, mean distinctions of climate or of country, 
which diminish the benevolence of the heart and 
set bounds to philanthropy. Before this war was 
begun I had, at an early time of life, withdrawn from 
sea service, in favor of calm contemplation and 
poetic ease. I have sacrificed not only my favorite 
scheme of life, but the softer affections of the heart 
and my prospects of domestic happiness, and I am 
ready to sacrifice my life also, with cheerfulness, if 
that forfeiture could restore peace and good-will 
among mankind. 

" As the feelings of your gentle bosom cannot but 
be congenial with mine, let me entreat you, madam, 
to use your persuasive art, with your husband's, to 
endeavor to stop this cruel and destructive war, in 
which Britain never can succeed. Heaven can never 
countenance the barbarous and unmanly practice of 
the Britons in America, which savages would blush 
at, and which, if not discontinued, will soon be retali- 
ated on Britain by a justly enraged people. Should 
you fail in this, for I am persuaded that you will 
attempt it — and who can resist the power of such an 



BEARDING THE BRITISH LION. >JJ^ 

advocate? — your endeavors to effect a general ex- 
change of prisoners will be an act of humanity which 
will afford you golden feelings on your death-bed. 

" I hope this cruel contest will soon be closed. 
But should it continue, I wage no war with the fair. 
I acknowledge their force and bend before it with sub- 
mission. Let not, therefore, the amiable Countess 
of Selkirk regard me as an enemy. I am ambitious 
of her esteem and friendship, and would do anything 
consistent with my duty to merit it. 

" The honor of a Hne, from your hand, in answer 
to this, will lay me under a singular obligation. 
And if I can render you any acceptable service in 
France or elsewhere, I hope you see into my charac- 
ter so far as to command me without the least grain 
of reserve. 

" I wish to know exactly the behavior of my 
people, as I am determined to punish them if they 
exceed their liberty. I have the honor to be, with 
much esteem and with profound respect, 
" Madam, yours, etc., 

"John Paul Jones/' 



CHAPTER IV. 

Captain Jones at Naiites and at Brest. ' 

Correspondence with Lord Selkirk. — Terrible Battle with the Ship 
Drake. — Capture of the Ship. — Carnage on board the Drake. — 
Generosity to Captured Fishermen. — Insubordination of Lieuten- 
ant Simpson. — Embarrassments of Captain Jones. — Hopes and 
Disappointments. — Proofs of Unselfish Patriotism. — Letter to 
the King of France.— rAnecdote of Poor Richard. 

The letter of Paul Jones to the Countess of 
Selkirk was published widely throughout England, 
and attracted much attention. Dr. Franklin wrote 
to Captain Jones from Paris : 

*' It was a gallant letter, and must give her lady- 
ship a high opinion of your generosity and nobleness 
of mind." 

The plate fell into the hands of the prize agents. 
After much difficulty and considerable delay, Captain 
Jones succeeded in purchasing it, though at a price 
above its real value. He then returned it to Lord 
Selkirk, himself defraying all the expenses of trans- 
portation. Lord Selkirk, in acknowledging its re- 
ceipt, from London, under date of August, 1789, 
wrote : 



AT NANTES AND AT BREST. 79 

*' Notwithstanding all the precautions you took 
for the easy and uninterrupted conveyance of the 
plate, yet it met with considerable delays, first at 
Calais, next at Dover, then at London. However, it 
at last arrived at Dumfries. I intended to have put 
an article in the newspapers about your having re- 
turned it. But before I was informed of its being 
arrived, some of your friends, I suppose, had put it 
into the Dumfries newspaper, whence it was imme- 
diately copied into the Edinburgh papers, and thence 
into the London ones. Since that time I have men- 
tioned it to many people of fashion. 

*' And on all occasions, both now and formerly, I 
have done you the justice to tell that you made an 
offer of returning the plate very soon after your re- 
turn to Brest ; and although you yourself was not 
at my house, but remained at the shore with your 
boat, that you had your officers and men in such 
extraordinary good discipline, that your having given 
them the strictest orders to behave well, to do no 
injury of any kind, to make no search, but only to 
bring off what plate was given them ; that in reality 
they did exactly as ordered, and that not one man 
offered to stir from his post on the outside of the 
house, nor entered the doors, nor said an uncivil 
word ; that the two officers staid not a quarter of an 
hour in the, parlor and in the butler's pantry, while 



80 PAUL JONES. 

the butler got the plate together, behaved politely, 
and asked for nothing but the plate, and instantly 
marched their men off, in regular order, and that both 
officers and men behaved in all respects so well that 
it would have done credit to the best disciplined 
troops whatever." 

The style of Captain Jones's letter has been found 
fault with. But in literary excellence it is certainly 
above that of the English lord. One of the Lon- 
don papers said of him : 

" Paul Jones is about thirty-six years of age, of a 
middling stature, well proportioned, with an agreea- 
ble countenance. His conversation shows him to be 
a man of talents, and that he has a liberal education. 
His letters, in foreign gazettes, show that he can 
fight with the pen as well as with the sword." 

In the letter which Captain Jones sent to Lord 
Selkirk upon the return of the plate, he wrote : 

*' The long delay that has happened to the restora- 
tion of your plate, has given me much concern, and 
I now feel a proportionate pleasure in fulfilling what, 
was my first intention. My motive for landing at 
your estate in Scotland was to take j^(??/, as a hostage 
for the lives and liberties of a number of the citizens 
of America, who had been taken in war on the ocean 
and committed to British prisons, under an act of 
Parliament, as traitors, pirates^ and felo7is. You ob- 



AT NANTES AND AT BREST. 8 1 

served to Mr. Alexander that my idea was a mis- 
taken one, because you were not, as I had supposed, 
in favor with the British ministry, who knew that 
you favored the cause of liberty. On that account, I 
am glad that you were absent from your estate when 
I landed there, as I bore no personal enmity, but the 
contrary, toward you. I afterward had the happi- 
ness to redeem my fellow-citizens from Britain, by 
means far more glorious than through the medium 
of any single hostage. 

"■ As I have endeavored to serve the cause of lib- 
erty, through every stage of the American Revolu- 
tion, and have sacrificed to it my private ease, a part 
of my fortune, and some of my blood, I could have 
no selfish motive in permitting my people to demand 
and carry off your plate. My sole inducement was 
to turn their attention and stop their rage from 
breaking out and retaliating on your house and 
effects the too wanton burnings and desolation 
that had been committed against their relations and 
fellow-citizens in America, by the British ; of which, 
I assure you, you would have felt the severe conse- 
quences, had I not fallen on an expedient to prevent 
it, and hurried my people away before they had 
time for further reflection." 

We must now return from this episode to the 

continuance of Captain Jones's cruise. In his letter 
-I* 



82 PAUL JONES. 

to Lady Selkirk, he alludes to a naval battle with the 
ship Drake. After the descent upon Mary's Island, 
Captain Jones again stood across the Channel from 
the Scottish to the Irish shore. On the morning of 
the 24th, he arrived off the Bay of Carrickfergus, and 
would again have entered, to make an attack upon 
the Drake, had he not seen that that ship was spread- 
ing her sails to come out. The wind was very light 
and the progress of the British ship slow. The cap- 
tain of the Drake had heard of the ravages of the 
Ranger, for the appaUing tidings had spread far and 
wide, and he was coming out in search of her. See- 
ing this vessel in the distance, a boat was sent out 
from the Drake to reconnoitre. Captain Jones kept 
the ship's stern directly toward the approaching 
boat, and so succeeded in disguising his true charac- 
ter that though the boat's crew carefully scrutinized 
him with a spy-glass, they were completely deceived, 
and, hailing the vessel, came alongside. As soon 
as the officer stepped upon the quarter-deck, he 
found, to his great surprise, himself a prisoner and- 
his boat captured. 

Captain Jones learned, from his captives, that the 
night before an express had reached the Drake, with 
tidings of the destruction of the shipping at White- 
haven ; and the Drake had immediately increased 
its crew by a large number of volunteers, and was 



AT NANTES AND AT BREST. 83 

now pressing forward in pursuit of the Ranger. 
Alarm fires were also seen on the eminences on 
both sides of the Channel, their columns of smoke 
rising high into the air. It was evident that the 
achievements of the bold little Ranger had created 
a great commotion, rousing all England to a sense 
of danger, for no one knew upon what point her next 
blows might fall. 

The wind was light and the tide unfavorable, so 
that the Drake worked out of the bay slowly. Cap- 
tain Jones awaited her arrival, laying to with courses 
up, and main-topsail to the mast. At length, the 
Drake, having reached the mid-channel, came with- 
in hailing distance, and ran up the flag of England. 
At the same instant the Stars and Stripes were un- 
furled at the topmast of the Ranger. Still an officer 
on the quarter-deck of the Drake shouted out : 

"What ship is that?" 

The reply was immediately returned : 

" It is the American Continental ship Ranger. We 
are waiting for you. The sun is but little more than 
an hour from setting. It is therefore time to begin." 

The Drake was astern of the Ranger. Jones 
ordered the helm up, and as his vessel rounded to, 
discharged a full broadside into the thronged decks 
of the Drake. The iron storm crashed through 
timbers and bones and quivering nerves with terrible 



84 PAUL JONES. 

destruction. But the spirit of war can never arrest 
its energies to compassionate its victims. Tlie guns 
of the Drake were loaded and shotted, and the gun- 
ners stood, with hghted torches, at their posts. 
Instantly the fire was returned, while the dead were 
left in their blood, and the wounded were hurried to 
the cockpit, to writhe beneath the cuttings of the 
surgeon's knife.- 

Thus, for an hour and four minutes, the dreadful 
conflict continued. The thunders of the exploding 
guns, booming over the waves, echoed along the 
shores of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The Brit- 
ish Government dreamed not that its feeble colonies 
could do anything more than present a brief and 
totally unavailing resistance behind frail ramparts, 
suddenly thrown up, three thousand miles away, on 
the other side of the Atlantic. And yet here were 
those colonies putting forth energies which were 
burning ships in England's home harbors, and bom- 
barding her frigates in her own Channel. 

At the close of an hour and four minutes of as 
obstinate a naval battle as could be fought, the 
Drake dropped her flag and cried for quarter. Her 
fore and main-topsail yards were both cut away, and 
hung down on the cap. The top-gallant yard and 
mizzen gaff were also torn from their fastenings and 
were dangling against the mast. The first flag had 



AT NANTES AND AT BREST. 85 

been shot away. They had raised a second. That 
also had fallen before the incessant storm of iron 
hail, and was draggling in the water. Her masts 
and yards were all more or less shattered, while the 
main-mast was so seriously wounded as to be in dan- 
ger of falling. The jib was shot away, and, held by 
the cordage, was floating on the waves. The hull 
was pierced in many places, shivered and splintered 
by the balls. 

Upon entering the captured ship an appalling 
spectacle met the eye. A hundred and ninety men 
had crowded it, in the full assurance of victory. Of 
these, forty-two were either killed or wounded. A 
musket-ball had pierced the brain of the captain, and 
he lay weltering in blood, silent in death. The first 
lieutenant had also been struck by a mortal wound, 
and was in death's convulsions. 

It is very remarkable that on board the Ranger 
there was but one man killed and six wounded. 
The night succeeding this terrible storm of human 
violence was severe and the ocean tranquil. As all 
hands were busy in refitting the shattered vessels, 
an EngHsh merchant brig came along, bound for 
Norway. It was captured without difficulty. As 
English men-of-war were crowding St. George's Chan- 
nel, Captain Jones decided to pass through the 



86 PAUL JONES. 

North Channel with his two prizes, and return to 
Brest by the west coast of Ireland. 

When Captain Jones first made his appearance 
off Carrickfergus Bay, he captured a fishing-boat to 
make inquiries respecting the shipping within the 
bay. As secrecy was essential to his plan of opera- 
tion, it was necessary to detain those fishermen with 
their boat. Otherwise they would communicate 
intelligence of his movements, and abundant pre- 
parations would be made to repel him. It was no 
longer necessary to detain them. Captain Jones 
writes : 

" It was now time to release the honest fishermen, 
whom I took up here on the 2ist. And, as the poor 
fellows had lost their boat, she having sunk in the 
late stormy weather, I was happy in having it in my 
power to give them the necessary sum to purchase 
everything new which they had lost. I gave them 
also a good boat, to transport themselves ashore ; 
and sent with them two infirm men, on whom I be- 
stowed the last guinea in my possession, to defray 
their travelling expenses to their proper home in 
Dublin. They took with them one of the Drake's 
sails, which would sufficiently explain what had hap- 
pened to the volunteers. The grateful fishermen 
were in raptures ; and expressed their joy in their 
huzzas as they passed the Ranger's quarter." 



AT NANTES AND AT BREST. 87 

This was indeed extraordinary magnanimity 
when we contrast it with the conduct of England, 
bombarding and burning our defenceless villages, 
immuring our most illustrious men in the dungeons 
of hulks, worse than the oubliettes of the Bastile, and 
robbing poor fishermen of everything, burning their 
boats, and often impressing them into her navy, and 
compelling them to serve the guns against their own 
countrymen. 

Contrary winds so impeded the progress of Cap- 
tain Jones that it was not until the 5th of May that 
he had skirted the western coast of Ireland, and 
reached Ushant, a French island a few miles distant 
from the extreme northwestern coast of France. 
The Ranger was accompanied by the two vessels she 
had taken, having the torn and battered Drake in 
tow. A ship hove in sight to the leeward, steering for 
the Channel. Captain Jones cast off the Drake, by 
cutting the hawser, and gave chase to the stranger. 
His swift-sailing vessel overtook the chase in little 
more than an hour, and hailing her, found that she 
was a Swede. He therefore immediately hauled by 
the wind and returned to the southward to rejoin the 
Drake, which was then scarcely perceptible in the 
distant horizon. 

The evolutions of the Drake surprised him. She 
seemed to be trying to put as much distance as pos- 



88 PAUL JONES. 

sible between herself and the Ranger. Several large 
ships appeared steering into the Channel. But Jones 
was prevented from pursuing them in consequence 
of the extraordinary evolutions of the Drake. He 
made signals. They were totally disregarded. It 
was not until the next day he succeeded in overtak- 
ing the runaway Drake. Her commanding officer, 
Lieutenant Simpson, was immediately placed under 
arrest for disobedience of orders. 

It would seem that the lieutenant left America 
with the impression, and doubtless a correct one, 
that, upon arriving in France, Captain Jones was to 
be transferred to another and much finer ship, while 
he was to be left in command of the Drake. He 
consequently seemed to feel that the Drake and her 
crew belonged to him, and the temporary captain 
was rather a passenger whom he was conveying to 
his destination. He therefore assumed airs, and 
was guilty of petty acts of insubordination, which 
were very annoying to Captain Jones, who was a 
strict disciplinarian. 

Moreover, Lieutenant Simpson allowed his re- 
publican principles to carry him so far as to advo- 
cate a republican form of government even upon the 
decks of a war-ship. He declared to the sailors, 
that they, being free and enlightened American citi- 
zens, were entitled to decide, by the voice of the 



AT NANTES AND AT BREST. 89 

majority, respecting all questions of importance on 
ship-board ; that the captain was to be their agent 
to perform their will. Simpson was daily growing 
more discontented with the position he occupied, 
and was probably intending to run away with the 
Drake, one of the best finished of England's war- 
ships, to repair her in some French harbor, and to 
sail forth on a cruise upon his own responsibility, 
perhaps as a French privateersman. 

But for this insubordination on the part of Lieu- 
tenant Simpson, Captain Jones would doubtless have 
taken several other important prizes. The Ranger, 
with her two prizes, returned to the harbor of Brest, 
and cast anchor there on the 9th of May, having 
been absent but one month. In the mean time the 
French squadron, under Count d'Estaing, had been 
made ready for sea. The news of the brilliant 
achievements of Paul Jones electrified France and 
appalled ^England. The alarm infused along the 
coasts of Great Britain and Ireland amounted almost 
to a panic. Lookout vessels were constantly cruising 
along the shores. The militia were called out. New 
fortifications were constructed. The whole population 
of the seacoast was kept in a state of constant alarm. 

But Captain Jones was now in great pecuniary 
embarrassment. The Colonial Government was so 
poor that it could not honor his drafts. He was not 



go PAUL JONES. 

only unable to refit his ship, but was in want of the 
means of providing the daily food for his crew. 
When he left America he had advanced, from his 
own means, seven thousand dollars for the public 
service. He had, in a foreign land, two hundred 
prisoners of war to be provided for, a number of his 
own sick and wounded, and his ship to be repaired, 
shattered by a terrible engagement, and destitute of 
provisions and stores. And he was not allowed to 
dispose of his prizes until he received further orders 
from the home Government. 

After a vast amount of mental suffering he suc- 
ceeded, by his personal credit with distinguished 
French noblemen. Count d'Orvilliers and the Duke 
de Chartres, in raising money to meet his immediate 
and most pressing wants, and in refitting both the 
Ranger and the Drake for sea. The British seamen 
who were prisoners, if released, would be immediately 
forced on board the British men-of-war to man 
their guns. It was also necessary to retain them to 
effect exchanges for our own captive countrymen, 
whom the British were treating with such great bar- 
barity. In his letters to the Government he urged 
the imperious necessity of supplying the seamen with 
the little necessaries and comforts of life. He also, 
while entreating that the English prisoners should 
be treated with kindness, and all their needful wants 



AT NANTES AND AT BREST. 9 1 

supplied, urged that they should by no means be 
released without an exchange. He now, during 
several months, passed through a series of trials, mor- 
tifications, and disappointments, a detail of which 
would but weary the reader. In carefully examining 
his voluminous correspondence, during this season of 
trial, when his whole soul was glowing with the de- 
sire for active service, and when the inactivity to 
which he was doomed was, to him, almost insupport- 
able, I cannot find a single expression unworthy of 
his noble character, as a self-denying patriot, a gal- 
lant officer, and a humane gentleman. 

Humanity required that England should feel the 
horrors of war which she was so mercilessly inflicting 
upon her infant colonies. In no other way could 
she be induced to sheathe the sword. He proposed 
to the Commissioners in Paris another expedition, of 
three fast-sailing frigates, to destroy three hundred 
vessels in the harbor at Whitehaven, to burn the 
town, and to destroy the important coal-works there. 

As time would be requisite to prepare for so im- 
portant an expedition, he proposed that a smaller 
force should immediately be fitted out, to harass 
the northern coasts of Great Britain, and to lay 
contributions upon the important towns. On the 
loth of July, 1778, Dr. Franklin wrote him, saying: 

" In consequence of the high opinion which the 



92 PAUL JONES. 

Minister of Marine has of your conduct and bravery, 
it is now settled that you are to have the frigate 
from Holland, which will be furnished with as many 
good French seamen as you may require. As you 
may like to have a number of Americans, and your 
own crew are homesick, it is proposed to give you 
as many as you can engage, out of two hundred 
prisoners which the ministry of Britain have, at 
length, agreed to give in exchange for those you 
have in your hands. They propose to make the ex- 
change at Calais, where they are to bring the Ameri- 
cans. The project of giving you the command of 
this ship pleases me the more, as it is a probable 
opening to the higher preferment you so justly 
merit." 

The conduct of Lieutenant Simpson had been 
exasperating in the highest degree, and yet Captain 
Jones wrote to the Commissioners, on the 4th of 
July: 

'^ Lieutenant Simpson has certainly behaved 
amiss. Yet I can forgive as well as resent. Upon 
his making a proper concession, I will, with your 
approbation, not only forgive the past, but leave 
him the command of the Ranger." 

In anticipation of a speedy command, Captain 
Jones was anxious to secure the services of a chap- 
lain. In a communication to a friend whom he 



AT NANTES AND AT BREST. 93 

desired to asist him in obtaining such an officer, he 
wrote : 

*' I should wish the chaplain to be a man 
of reading and of letters, who understands, speaks, 
and writes the French and English with elegance 
and propriety. For pohtical reasons it would be 
well if he were a clergyman of the Protestant pro- 
fession, whose sanctity of manners, and happy, natu- 
ral principles would diffuse unanimity and cheer- 
fulness through the ship. Such a man would be 
worthy of the highest confidence." 

On the loth of August, Captain Jones repaired 
to Brest, expecting to be put in command of the 
splendid ship which had been promised. This ship 
belonged to the Government. To his bitter disap- 
pointment he found that it had been assigned to 
another man. Lieutenant Simpson sailed to America 
in the Ranger. The Drake was a shattered prize as 
yet unsold. Captain Jones was left in the humili- 
ating position of an adventurer out of employment. 
He wrote to the Prince of Nassau, with the appro- 
val of Dr. Frankhn, earnestly imploring a commission 
under the French flag. In his letter he wrote : 

" Suffer me not, I beseech, you to continue longer 
in this shameful inactivity. Such dishonor is worse 
to me than a thousand deaths. I have already lost 
the golden season, the summer, which, in war, is of 



94 PAUL JONES. 

more value than all the rest of the year. I appear 
here as a person cast off and useless. When any 
one asks me what I purpose to do, I am unable to 
answer." 

Dr. Franklin transmitted this letter, and wrote 
to Captain Jones: "Your letter was sent to the 
Prince of Nassau. I am confident that something will 
be done for you, though I do not yet know what. 
I sympathize with you in what I know you must suf- 
fer from your present inactivity ; but have patience." 

It was proposed that he should take command 
of a prize-ship taken from the English. Examin- 
ing the ship, and finding that she sailed slow, and 
had but a feeble armament, he unqualifiedly rejected 
her. Writing to M. Chaumont, a wealthy French 
gentleman, who had great influence with the Gov- 
ernment, he said : 

" I wish to have no connection w^ith any ship that 
does not sail fast. For I intend to go in harm's way. 
You know, I believe, that this is not every one's 
intention. Therefore buy a frigate that sails fast and 
that is sufficiently large to carry twenty-six or twenty- 
eight guns, not less than twelve-pounders, on one 
deck. I would rather be shot ashore than sent to sea 
in such things as the armed prizes I have described." 

An offer was made by a wealthy merchant 
of Nantes, M. Montieu, to place Captain Jones in 



AT NANTES AND AT BREST. 95 

a first-class ship, thoroughly armed, to proceed on a 
privateering expedition. He replied : 

*' Were I in pursuit of profit, I should accept the 
offer without hesitation. But I am under such obli- 
gations to Congress that I cannot think myself my 
own master. And as a servant of the imperial repub- 
lic of America, honored with the public approbation 
of my past services, I cannot, from my own author- 
ity or inchnation, serve either myself or my best 
friends in any private line whatsoever, unless where 
the honor and interest of America is the premier 
object." 

War was now openly declared between France 
and England. The colonies could not furnish Captain 
Jones with a suitable frigate, and there were many 
French naval officers eager to take command of 
such ships as the king could furnish. Consequently 
the prospects of Captain Jones, notwithstanding his 
high reputation for both bravery and ability, were 
very dark. In this emergence, and consumed with 
the desire for active service, he wrote a letter to the 
king. In this letter, after a very truthful and very 
modest narrative of his past experience, he says : 

" Thus have I been chained down to shameful 
inactivity for five months. I have lost the best sea- 
son of the year, and such opportunities of serving 
my country and acquiring honor as I cannot again 



96 PAUL JONES. 

expect during this war. And, to my infinite morti- 
fication, having no command, I am considered every- 
where as an officer cast off, and in disgrace for secret 
reasons. 

" Having written to Congress to reserve no com- 
mand for me in America, my sensibiHty is the more 
affected by this unworthy situation in the sight of 
your majesty's fleet. Although I wish not to become 
my own panegyrist, I must beg your majesty's per- 
mission to observe that I am not an adventurer in 
search of fortune, of which, thank God, I have a suf- 
ficiency. 

" When the American banners were first dis- 
played, I drew my sword in support of the violated 
dignity and rights of human nature. And both 
honor and duty prompt me steadfastly to continue 
the righteous pursuit, and to sacrifice to it not only 
my private enjoyments, but even life, if necessary. I 
must acknowledge that the generous praise which I 
have received from Congress and others, exceeds the 
merit of my past services, and therefore I the more 
ardently wish for future opportunities of testifying 
my gratitude by my activity. 

" As your majesty, by espousing the cause of 
America, has become the protector of the rights of 
human nature, I am persuaded that you will not dis- 



AT NANTES AND AT BREST. 97 

regard my situation, nor suffer me to remain any- 
longer in this insupportable disgrace." 

This letter was enclosed in one to the Duchess 
of Chartres, with whom he was personally acquainted, 
and from whom he had received kind attentions. 
He besought her to present the letter to his majesty 
the king; which she did. 

One day, chance threw into Captain Jones's 
hands an old almanac, containing Poor Richard's 
Maxims, by Doctor Franklin. In that curious 
medley of wit and wisdom, poor Richard is repre- 
sented as saying : 

" If you wish to have any business done faith- 
fully and expeditiously, go and do it yourself. Otker- 
wise, send some one." 

The maxim impressed Jones deeply. He pon- 
dered it, and decided that he had acted very unwisely 
in writing so many letters, instead of going directly 
to court, and making personal solicitations. Imme- 
diately he set out for Versailles, in whose gorgeous 
palace the royal family and court were then residing. 
Such was the potency of his presence that in a few 
days, on the 4th of February, 1779, ^^ received from 
M. De Sartine, the French Minister of Marine, the 
following exhilarating letter: 
5 



98 PAUL JONES. 

" To John Paul Jones, Esq., 

'' Commander of the American Navy in Europe. 
'' Sir — I announce to you that, in consequence 
of the exposition I have laid before the king, of the 
distinguished manner in which you have served the 
United States, and of the entire confidence which 
your conduct has merited from Congress, his ma- 
jesty has thought proper to place you in command 
of the ship Duras, of forty guns, at present at 
L'Orient. I am about, in consequence, to issue the 
necessary orders for the complete armament of that 
ship. 

"■ The commission which was given you, at your 
departure from America, will authorize you to hoist 
the flag of the United States, and you will hkewise 
make use of the authority which has been vested in 
you, to procure a crew of Americans. But as you 
may find difficulty in raising a sufficient number, the 
king permits you to levy volunteers, until you obtain 
men enough, in addition to those who will be neces- 
sary to sail the ship. It shall be my care to procure 
the necessary officers, and you may be assured that 
I shall contribute every aid in my power to promote 
the success of your enterprise. 

'' As soon as you are prepared for sea, you will 
set sail without waiting for any ulterior orders ; and 
you will yourself select your own cruising ground, 



AT NANTES AND AT BREST. 99 

either in the European or American seas, observing 
always to render me an exact account of each event, 
that may take place during your cruise, as often as 
you may enter any port under the dominion of the 
king." 

No one can describe the satisfaction with which 
Captain Jones read this communication. FeeHng 
that his success was due to the good advice which 
he had received from Poor Richard, he asked leave 
to give his ship that name, or as translated into 
French, the name of Bo7i Homme RicJiard. Captain 
Jones, in his grateful reply to the Minister of Marine, 
v\^rites : 

" I take the earliest opportunity to offer you my 
sincere and grateful thanks, for so singular and hon- 
orable a mark of your confidence and approbation. 
Your having permitted me to alter the name of the 
ship, has given me a pleasing opportunity of paying 
a well-merited compliment to a great and good man, 
to whom I am under obligations, and who honors 
me with his friendship." 



CHAPTER V. 
Cruise of the Bon Homme Richard. 

Plans of Lafayette. — Correspondence. — Humane Instructions of 
Franklin. — Proposed Invasion of England. — Sailing of the 
Squadron. — Conduct of Pierre Landais. — The Collision. — Ad- 
ventures of the Cruise. — Insane Actions of Landais. — Plan for 
Capture. — Plan for the Capture of Leith and Edinburgh. 

Captain Jones eagerly repaired to L'Orient to 
inspect his ship and prepare her for service. He 
found that she was adapted to mount a battery of 
eighteen-pounders. He then hastened to Bordeaux, 
to order the casting of the cannon. Lafayette was 
at that time in America, cooperating with the army 
under Washington. Congress built a frigate of 
thirty-six guns, which was named the Alliance, out 
of compliment to the recent alliance with France. 
Congress also, in expression of gratitude to France, 
appointed a French officer, Pierre Landais, in com- 
mand of the frigate. The Alliance was sent out to 
France to cooperate with Captain Jones, and took 
Lafayette as a passenger. 

The distinguished Fi-ench marquis was well ac- 



CRUISE OF THE BON HOMME RICHARD. lOI 

quainted with the reputation of Captain Jones, as a 
courteous and high-minded gentleman, as well as 
one of the bravest and most skilful of naval officers. 
He wished to join Jones in his projected expedition. 
In conference with Dr. Franklin, at Paris, it was de- 
cided that Lafayette should embark in the fleet with 
a land force of seven hundred picked men, over 
whom he was to have the supreme control. Captain 
Jones was to have the undivided naval command. 
The Alliance, which was a very fine and fast frigate, 
was to be joined to his squadron. In reference to 
this contemplated expedition. Dr. Franklin address- 
ed a letter to Captain Jones, containing the following 
judicious counsel : 

" The Marquis de la Fayette will soon be with 
you. It has been observed, that joint expeditions 
of land and sea- forces often miscarry, through jeal- 
ousies and misunderstandings between the officers 
of the different corps. This must happen where 
there are little minds, actuated more by personal 
views of profit or honor to themselves, than by the 
warm and sincere desire of good to their country. 
Knowing you both, as I do, I am confident that 
nothing of the kind can happen between you. I 
look upon this expedition only as an introduction to 
greater trusts and more extensive commands, and as 
a kind of trial of both your abilities, and of your fit- 



102 PAUL JONES. 

ness in temper and disposition for acting in concert 
with others. 

'' As this is understood to be an American expe- 
dition under the Congressional commission and 
colors, the Marquis, who is a major-general in that 
service, has of course, the step in point of rank, and 
he must have command of the land forces, which are 
committed by the king to his care. But the com- 
mand of the ships will be entirely in you, in which 
I am persuaded that whatever authority his rank 
might, in strictness, give him, he will not have the 
least desire to interfere with you. The circumstance 
is indeed a little unusual. For there is not only a 
junction of land and sea forces, but there is also a 
junction of Frenchmen and Americans, which in- 
creases the difficulty of maintaining a good under- 
standing. A cool, prudent conduct in the chief, is 
therefore the more necessary, and I trust, neither 
of you will, in that respect, be deficient." 

The following instructions were also added to 
the letter. But when Dr. Frankhn subsequently 
heard of the burning of Fairfield and other towns in 
America, and of the fiend-like cruelties which the 
English officers were authorizing, he was doubtful 
whether the circumstances did not demand more 
severe retaliation. 

" As many of your officers and people have re- 



CRUISE OF THE BON HOMME RICHARD. IO3 

cently escaped from English prisons, you are to be 
particularly attentive to their conduct toward the 
prisoners which the fortune of war may throw into 
your hands, lest the resentment of the more than 
barbarous usage by the English in many places to- 
ward the Americans, should occasion a retaliation 
and imitation of what ought rather to be detested 
and avoided for the sake of humanity and for the 
honor of our country. 

"Although the English have wantonly burnt 
many defenceless towns in America, you are not to 
follow this example, unless when a reasonable ran- 
som is refused ; in which case, your own generous 
feelings, as well as this instruction, will induce you to 
give timely notice of your intention, that sick and 
ancient persons, women and children, may be first 
removed." 

In reply to this communication, Captain Jones 
wrote : '' The letter I had the honor to receive from 
you to-day, together with your liberal and noble-^ 
minded instructions, would make a coward brave. 
You have called up every sentiment of public virtue 
in my breast, and it shall be my pride and ambition, 
in the strict pursuit of your instructions, to deserve 
success. 

" Be assured, that very few prospects could afford 
me so true a satisfaction as that of rendering some 



104 PAUL JONES. 

acceptable service to the common cause, and at the 
same time of relieving from captivity, by furnishing 
the means of exchange, our unfortunate fellow-sub- 
jects, from the hands of the enemy." 

Captain Jones then wrote to Lafayette : " So flat- 
tering and affectionate a proof of your esteem and 
friendship has made an impression on my mind that 
will attend me while I live. This I hope to prove 
by more than words. Where men of fine feelings 
are concerned there is seldom misunderstanding. 
And I am sure that I should do violence to my sen- 
sibility if I were capable of giving you a moment's 
pain by any part of my conduct. Therefore, with- 
out any apology, I shall expect you to point out my 
errors, when we are together alone, with perfect 
freedom ; and I think I dare promise you your re- 
proof shall not be lost. I have received from the 
good Dr. Franklin instructions at large, which it 
will give me the truest satisfaction to execute." 

Much to Captain Jones's disappointment this 
proposed cooperation with Lafayette was soon 
abandoned. Spain was preparing to unite with 
France and America against England. An invasion 
of the island of Great Britain, by the allies, was con- 
templated. Large forces were raised in the north- 
ern provinces of France, and marched to the coast, 
while general officers were named to conduct the ^ 



CRUISE OF THE BON HOMME RICHARD. I05 

enterprise. Lafayette was appointed to command a 
portion of this army. In his letter to Jones, inform- 
ing him of the change which the ministry had made 
in his plans, he wrote : 

*' I am only to tell you, my good friend, how 
sorry I feel not to be a witness of your success, abili- 
ties, and glory." 

The Richard was soon fitted for sea with a bat- 
tery of forty guns ; six only of these were eighteen- 
pounders. The rest were of but twelve-pound 
calibre. There were three hundred and twenty-nine 
officers and privates on the muster-roll. The crew 
had been hastily gathered from American prisoners 
rescued from the English prisons, from French peas- 
ants, and from vagabond English sailors who were 
ready to enlist under any flag for the money. There 
were not more than thirty Americans among the 
crew. 

Four other vessels composed the little squadron. 
The American frigate Alliance, of thirty-six guns, 
was under the command of the French officer, to 
whom we have before alluded, Pierre Landais. The 
conduct of this officer was so extraordinary that it 
can only be accounted for on the supposition that 
he was actually insane. The Pallas mounted thirty- 
two guns. It was a merchant-ship, purchased by 
the King of France and hastily fitted up at Nantes. 

5* 



I06 PAUL JONES. 

The Cerf had eighteen guns, and the Vengeance 
twelve. 

The state of affairs on board the AUiance was 
such that the frigate was no help, but rather a hin 
drance to the enterprise. The crew were in a state 
bordering on open mutiny. The first and second 
lieutenants had deserted. The captain and his 
other officers were in a state of open and shameful 
hostility, ready to cut each other's throats. The 
Vengeance was also a merchant vessel, very poorly 
prepared for battle. The Cerf was a fine cutter, and 
the only vessel in the squadron which was well fitted 
and manned. 

Captain Jones, who ever sought the most heroic 
enterprises, had formed the bold plan of appalling 
England by the capture of the city of Liverpool. 
But the withdrawal of Lafayette and his land forces 
from the expedition rendered it necessary to aban- 
don this all-important measure. The squadron was 
first employed in convoying a fleet of merchant ves- 
sels down the coast of France, a distance of about 
two hundred miles, from L'Orient to Bordeaux, and 
to drive all of the English cruisers out of the Bay of 
Biscay. 

On the night of the 20th of June, Pierre Landais 
contrived to run the AlHance' upon the Richard. 
He thus lost his own mizzen-mast, while he tore away 



CRUISE OF THE BON HOMME RICHARD. 10/ 

the head and bowsprit of the Richard. This pre- 
tended accident was probably intentional. It soon 
became evident that he would be glad to cripple the 
Richard, probably hoping that she would be sent 
back for repairs, and that he, instead of being a sub- 
ordinate, might be intrusted with the supreme com- 
mand of the expedition. Through all the confusion 
of the scene, when, in almost midnight darkness and 
on a stormy sea, both vessels were in imminent peril 
of being sunk, with all their crews, he behaved like 
a madman. It was attested, by the officers, in the 
trial which took place — 

*' That the captain of the Alliance did not take 
the steps in his power to prevent his ship from get- 
ting foul of the Richard ; for instead of putting his 
helm aweather, and bearing up to make way for his 
commanding officer, which was his duty, he left the 
deck to load his pistols." 

The next day a British vessel hove in sight. 
Captain Jones found that the Richard proved to be 
a lumbering concern and a slow sailer. He there- 
fore sent the swifter-winged cutter Cerf in pursuit 
of the stranger. It will be remembered that the 
Cerf carried but eighteen guns. The vessel proved 
to be a war-sloop of fourteen guns. A warm engage- 
ment took place. The thunders of this naval tem- 
pest swept the ocean far and wide. The Cerf was 



I08 PAUL JONES. 

victorious. Grappling her battered and blood-stained 
prize, she was making her way back to the squad- 
ron when a large British frigate bore down upon 
her. The Cerf, maimed by the conflict, was com- 
pelled to abandon her prize, and escaping to the 
squadron, was sent back to L'Orient to refit. 

The next day three British ships-of-war were dis- 
cerned far away to the windward. Jones, with his 
four vessels, bore down upon them. The frigates, 
seeing that they were outnumbered, escaped by 
superior sailing. A few days after this there was a 
fog. Though Captain Jones fired signal guns, to 
keep his squadron together, when the fog cleared 
away neither the Alliance nor the Pallas was any- 
where to be seen. Captain Jones was thus left with 
but two vessels ; and his own, the Richard, was so 
seriously damaged by the collision with the Alliance, 
that it was needful to make port as speedily as pos- 
sible, at L'Orient, for repairs. 

When a few leagues from L'Orient, between 
Belle Isle and the Isle of Croix, he gave the Ven- 
geance permission to run into the harbor while he 
moved, slowly along with his disabled ship. Thus 
he was left alone. After the Vengeance had left him, 
in the night of the 31st of June, two British war- 
vessels attacked him. In his crippled state his vessel 
amounted to but httle excepting a floating battery. 



CRUISE OF THE BON HOMME RICHARD. I09 

But he served his guns so well and gave his foes so 
warm a reception, that they speedily retired. 

''They appeared at first," writes Jones, "earnest 
to engage, but their courage failed, and they fled 
with precipitation, and to my mortification out- 
sailed the Bon Homme Richard and got clear." 

The Richard had proved a failure. Upon inspec- 
tion at L'Orient, she was pronounced to be unworthy 
of the great alterations essential to fit her for a suc- 
cessful campaign. The ship was, however, tinkered 
up for temporary service, and again Captain Jones 
was sent forth to cruise in the Channel, with a small 
squadron, under circumstances which would have 
disheartened any man of ordinary temperament. 

At daybreak on the 14th of August, 1779, the 
vessels weighed anchor from the harbor of L'Orient. 
The squadron consisted of the same vessels which 
had sailed before, and all of which had rendezvoused 
at L'Orient. Two French privateers also sailed in 
company, the Monsieur and the Granville. When 
four days out, on the i8th, the fleet came in sight 
of a large French ship which had been captured by 
an English privateer. A British crew was hurrying 
with the prize to the nearest British port. The 
squadron gave chase, and the prize was overtaken 
and recaptured by the swift-sailing privateer Mon- 
sieur. This fine ship carried forty guns. 



no PAUL JONES. 

The privateersman assumed that the prize was 
his own property, to which the squadron had no 
claim. He therefore, in the night, dropping astern, 
took from the prize such articles as he needed, and 
placed a portion of his crew and one of his own 
officers on board to hold possession. But Captain 
Jones promptly reversed this decision, and sent the 
prize, under his own orders, to L'Orient, to be dis- 
posed of in accordance with the laws provided for 
such an occasion. The captain of the Monsieur was 
so displeased with his manifestly just decision, that 
the next day he separated from the squadron. 

Two days after, on the 20th of August, another 
large ship was caught sight of, far away to the wind- 
ward. The squadron gave chase, but the ship 
escaped. The next day another ship was seen in 
the distant horizon, and pursued. But being to the 
windward, she also escaped. While engaged in the 
chase, one of the squadron overtook a brig laden 
with provisions, bound for London. She was easily 
captured, and under a prize crew was sent into 
L'Orient. 

On the 23d, the squadron w^as in sight of Cape 
Clear, the extreme southwestern point of Ireland. 
Srarcly a breath of wind rippled the mirrored surface 
ol the sea. The sails flapped idly against the masts, 
a& ^he vessels gently rolled on the vast ocean swells. 



CRUISE OF THE BON HOMME RICHARD. Ill 

Far away in the northwest a brig was seen. The 
calm prevented any advance of the squadron. Cap- 
tain Jones sent two large boats, well manned, and 
propelled by oars, to capture the vessel. 

The afternoon wore away, and as evening came 
on it was perceived that a strong ocean current was 
sweeping the Richard into a very dangerous position, 
between two rocks, called the Skallocks and the 
Blaskets. The captain sent out his own barge, with 
strong rowers, to tow the ship from her dangerous 
course. About one-third of the crew were English 
sailors. The best men had been sent off in the boats 
to capture the brig. He had therefore to man his 
barge mainly with the English. They were unprin- 
cipled adventurers, and when night came on they 
cut the tow-rope, and pulled for the shore. 

The evening was clear and serene. Mr. Trent, 
who occupied the position of sailing-master on board 
the Richard, immediately sprang into another of the 
ship's boats, with a few armed men, and pursued the 
deserters. At the same time several cannon-shot 
were unavaiHngly thrown at them. A fog came 
on, and the pursuing boat was lost in the darkness. 
The deserters reached the shore and escaped. The 
fog continued, a genuine EngHsh fog, until noon of 
the next day. The boats sent to capture the brig 



112 PAUL JONES. 

were successful. The crews under the command of 
the Heutenant took possession of the prize. 

The Cerf was sent to reconnoitre the coast, and to 
endeavor to recover the two lost boats, the barge and 
the boat sent in pursuit of it. Approaching near the 
shore, the Cerf, to avoid detection, raised English 
colors. Mr. Trent, catching sight of the hostile flag, 
fearing capture, ran his boat ashore, where he and his 
crew were made prisoners. They were thrown into 
a wretched dungeon, where the unhappy Mr. Trent 
lingered until death came to his relief. 

Thus the Richard lost two important boats. In 
the afternoon, Pierre Landais came on board the 
Richard, and, even assuming an arrogant air of 
superiority, affirmed, in a very insulting manner, 
that Captain Jones had lost two boats and their 
crews from his folly in sending boats to capture a 
brig. He erroneously supposed that the lost boats 
were the two which had first been sent out ;. whereas 
they had been entirely successful, and had triumph- 
antly accomplished their mission. Captain Jones 
listened calmly to his impertinent tirade, and then, 
with the courtesy of a true gentleman, replied: 

"It is not true," Captain Landais, '' that the 
boats which are lost, are the two which were sent to 
capture the brig." 

The irate Frenchman, almos-t insane with pas- 



CRUISE OF THE BON HOMME RICHARD. II3 

slon, whirled upon his heel, and exclaimed, to an 
officer who accompanied him, " He tells me I lieT 

The gestures of Landais were as rude and insult- 
ing as his language. Lieutenants Weibert and 
Chamillard endeavored to soothe the unreasonably 
angry man. But all was in vain. He raved like a 
maniac. Through all this scene, so disgraceful to 
the Frenchman, Captain Jones maintained a tranquil 
spirit. The conduct of Landais was so violent and 
so utterly unreasonable, that Captain Jones charita- 
bly excused him, on the supposition that there was 
a vein of insanity in his nature. 

The Cerf was utterly lost in the fog. The next 
night a violent storm arose, and the cutter, finding 
itself hopelessly separated from the squadron, re- 
turned to France. The privateer Granville, which 
mounted fourteen guns, having secured a prize, has- 
tened with it back to a French port. The modera- 
tion displayed by Captain Jones under annoyances 
sufficient to drive most men mad, is worthy of all 
praise. In his journal for the king he wrote : 

'* It was my intention to cruise off the southwest 
coast of Ireland for twelve or fifteen days, in order 
to intercept the enemy's homeward-bound East 
India ships. I had been informed that they would 
return without convoy, and would steer for that 
point of land. But Captain Landais, of the Alliance, 



114 PAUL JONES. 

began to speak and act as though he were not 
under my command. He made great objections to 
remaining on the coast, expressing apprehension 
that the enemy would send a superior force." 

On the evening of the 26th, as a violent storm 
was raging, Landais refused to obey the signal from 
the Richard, and altering his course, was not seen 
again for five days. The Pallas also, in the fearful 
gale, lost her rudder, and became in a great degree 
unmanageable. When the morning of the 27th of 
August dawned luridly upon the tempest-lashed 
ocean, the Bon Homme Richard found herself alone 
with the Vengeance. 

On the 31st of August, as the Richard and the 
Vengeance were in hot chase of an English priva- 
teer, mounting twenty-two guns, the Alliance, by 
chance, again appeared in sight. They were then 
off the extreme northwestern coast of Ireland, 
within sight of the Hebrides. They had run along 
the western shore of Ireland. The Alliance had 
captured a valuable prize, bound from Liverpool to 
Jamaica. The Richard and Vengeance soon over- 
took the vessel they were pursuing, and captured 
it, almost without a struggle. It proved to be the 
Union, bound from London for Quebec. It had a 
cargo of great value, consisting of sails, rigging, 



CRUISE OF THE BON HOMME RICHARD. II5 

anchors, cables, and other essential articles, for the 
war-vessels England was building on the lakes. 

Captain Jones, having manned from his crew the 
brig which he captured off the northwest of Ireland, 
and having lost the deserters who filled the barge, 
and twenty of his best men who were sent in pur- 
suit of them, probably could not well spare enough 
men to man the guns of the prize, so as to take her 
into some safe port. Landais sent the following in- 
sulting message to Captain Jones : 

" Do you wish to furnish men to carry the 
prize you have taken to port, or do you wish me to 
furnish men. If it is your wish that I should take 
charge of'the prize, I shall not allow any boat or any 
individual from the Bon Homme Richard to go near 
her." 

Captain Jones was very anxious, for the honor of 
our country, and for the success of the cause of 
American liberty, to avoid all jealousies and bicker- 
ings with our allies the French. He therefore, in 
a spirit of exalted patriotism, endured indignities, 
which, under other circumstances, it would not have 
been his duty to tolerate. With noble forbearance 
he replied that Captain Landais might take the ex- 
clusive charge of the prize. In his journal for the 
king he wrote : 

" Ridiculous as this appeared to me, I yielded to 



Il6 PAUL JONES. 

it for the sake of peace ; and received the prisoners 
on board the Bon Homme Richard, while the prize 
was manned from the AlHance." 

It was needful for Captain Jones to make this 
statement, in consequence of the result which ensued. 
The half-crazed Landais, instead of sending the 
prizes directly home to some port in France, proba- 
bly fearing that they might be captured by some 
English war-ship, despatched them to Bergen, in 
Norway. The Danish Government, being on friendly 
terms with England, gave them both up to the 
British ambassador. Landais pursued this strange 
course in direct violation of the order he had re 
ceived from Jones. The value of the two prizes, 
thus foolishly lost, was estimated to exceed two 
hundred thousand dollars. 

In the afternoon of the same day another large 
ship appeared in the horizon, near the Flamie 
Islands. As we have said, the Richard was a lumber- 
ing merchantman of slow speed. The Alliance was 
a finely built, swift-footed American frigate. Jones 
signalled the Alliance to aid him In the pursuit by 
immediately giving chase. Instead of obeying the 
commands of the appointed commodore of the squad- 
ron, he deliberately wore ship, and laid his course in 
the opposite direction. Night came. The stranger 
escaped. In the morning, Captain Jones signalled 



CRUISE OF THE BON HOMME RICHARD. 11/ 

Landais to come on board the Richard. He wished 
to confer respecting more cordial cooperation. Lan- 
dais contemptuously paid no regard to the signal. 

The next morning, which was the 2d of Septem- 
ber, daylight revealed a sail in the distance. The 
Richard and the Vengeance gave chase, followed 
sullenly by the Alliance. The ship proved to be 
the Pallas, which had, in some way, succeeded in 
repairing the loss of her rudder. A rendezvous had 
been appointed, in case the fleet should get separated, 
at Fair Island, north of Scotland. The squadron 
turned its course in that direction hoping to find the 
Cerf there. On the evening of the next day, Sep- 
tember 3d, the Vengeance captured a small brig 
returning to England from Norway. The Alliance 
had disappeared. It had gone, no one knew where. 
The terrible annoyances to which Captain Jones 
was exposed, in ways innumerable, may be inferred 
from the following extracts from his journal : 

" On the morning of the 4th the Alliance appear- 
ed again, and had brought two very small coasting 
sloops in ballast, but without having attended pro- 
perly to my order of yesterday. The Vengeance 
joined me soon after, and informed me that, in con- 
sequence of Captain Landais' orders to the com- 
manders of the two prize-ships, they had refused to 
follow him to the rendezvous. I am, to this moment. 



Il8 PAUL JONES. 

ignorant of what orders these men received from 
Captain Landais ; nor know I by virtue of what 
authority he ventured to give his orders to prizes in 
my presence, and without either my knowledge or 
approbation. Captain Ricot further informed me 
that he had burnt the brigantine, because that ves- 
sel proved leaky. And I was sorry to understand 
afterward that, though the vessel was Irish pro- 
perty, the cargo was the property of subjects of 
Norway. 

" In the evening I sent for all the captains to 
come on board the Bon Homme Richard, to consult 
on future plans of operations. Captains Cottineau 
and Ricot obeyed me ; but Captain Landais obsti- 
nately refused, and after sending me various uncivil 
messages, wrote me a very extraordinary letter, in 
answer to a written order which I had sent him on 
finding that he had trifled with my verbal orders." 

Three of the officers of the other ships, gallant 
officers and courteous gentlemen, Messrs. Mease, 
Cottineau, and Chamillard, went on board the Alli- 
ance to endeavor to persuade Landais not to pursue 
a course so ruinous to the efficiency of the expedi- 
tion. The angry man would not listen to the voice 
of reason. He spoke of Captain Jones in the most 
contemptuous and insulting terms. He even went 
so far as to say : ^ 



CRUISE OF THE BON HOMME RICHARD. II9 

" I will soon meet Captain Jones on shore. 
Then I will either kill him or he shall kill me." 

On the afternoon of the 5th of September, a 
storm arose. For four days one of the fiercest of 
gales ploughed the seas of those high northern lati- 
tudes ; for the squadron was then in the parallel of 
northern Labrador. In the second night of the gale 
the Alliance again disappeared, though there was 
nothing to prevent the vessels of the squadron from 
keeping in sight of each other. The Vengeance and 
the Pallas alone remained with the Richard. 

The squadron followed down the eastern coast 
of Scotland far out at sea. Their first sight of land 
revealed the summits of the Cheviot Hills, far away 
in the south. This was in the evening of the 13th. 
The next day they gaye chase to several vessels 
and succeeded in capturing a large ship and a brig, 
both laden with coal, some distance off the frith or 
bay of Edinburgh. 

The city of Leith is the seaport of the city of 
Edinburgh, which stands about a mile back from the 
bay. Leith contained a population of about twenty- 
five thousand, and its harbor was crowded with ship- 
ping. Captain Jones learned, from his prizes, that 
there was no land battery to defend Leith, and that 
there was, in the harbor, in addition to the ordinary 
shipping, an armed vessel of twenty guns, and three 



I20 PAUL JONES. 

fine cutters. Captain Jones, always eager for heroic 
measures, and whose courage, extraordinary as it 
was, was ever tempered by discretion, seeing both 
Leith and Edinburgh within reach of his blows and 
reposing in indolence and supposed security, desired 
to make an instantaneous attack. He summoned 
Captain Cottineau of the Pallas and Captain Cha- 
millard of the Vengeance to meet in his cabin. As 
he opened his bold plan to them they were appalled 
at the idea of attacking, with three small vessels, 
Leith, and consequently Edinburgh, which would 
instantly send all her forces to the rescue. Captain 
Jones eloquently urged upon the French officers the 
motives which influenced his own mind. 

" It is," he said, '' a matter of the utmost im- 
portance to teach the enemy humanity by some 
exemplary stroke of retaliation. And there is no 
way in which we can release from the most cruel 
captivity the American prisoners in England, but 
by making captives of some persons of note. The 
aristocratic Government of Great Britain will care 
but little for the fate of their poor sailors and fish- 
ermen. 

" Moreover, the Allies are soon to make a for- 
midable descent on the south side of England. It 
will greatly help their operations, if we can make a 
diversion here in the north. The bold measure will A 



CRUISE OF THE BON HOMME RICHARD. 121 

alarm them. They will imagine that an immense 
force is to follow into the Bay of Edinburgh. This 
will compel them to hurry their armies to the north, 
leaving the south unprotected. 

" And bold as the measure appears to be, it is by 
no means quixotic. There is every reason to expect 
success. We know just what resistance we have to 
encounter. We have ample means to overcome that 
resistance. And should any unforeseen calamity 
thwart our plans, we can promptly put to sea, and 
there are no vessels at hand which will dare to 
pursue us." 

Thus he argued all the night, but unavailingly. 
Objections and difficulties were presented without 
number. There was perhaps never more unselfish 
patriotism than that which glowed in the bosom of 
Paul Jones. The idea of his own personal interest 
being promoted by the plunder he should take, 
seemed never to have entered his mind. It would 
have been unreasonable to expect that such purity 
of motive could govern the French officers. They 
were merely the allies of America, and, in the war, 
had no important national interests at stake. Cap- 
tain Jones then appealed to another motive. 

" The cities of Leith and Edinburgh will readily 
give a million of dollars to ransom their two cities 
from the flames." 
6 



122 PAUL JONES. 

A million of dollars ! two hundred thousand 
pounds. This thought touched and melted their 
hearts. All opposition gave way. They were now 
ready to cooperate, with all the zeal which mercenary 
instincts could inspire. 



4 




FIGHT BETWEEN THE BON HOMME RICHARD AND SERAPIS. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis. 



Leith Threatened. — The Summons. — Remarkable Prayer. — Wide- 
spread Alarm. — Continuation of the Cruise. — Insubordination of 
Landais. — Successive Captures. — Terrible Battle between the 
Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis. — The Great Victoiy. 



Unfortunately so much time had been spent 
in convincing the captains of the Pallas and the 
Vengeance of the feasibility of an attack upon Leith, 
that the golden hour of success was lost. As the 
Httle fleet of three vessels was saiHng up the wide 
Frith of Forth, and were abreast of Inchkeith 
Island, within ten or twelve miles of Leith, and which 
island is at the entrance of the harbor, the success 
of the enterprise seemed certain. It was the morn- 
ing of the seventeenth. In an hour the vessels 
would have been within cannon-shot of the town. 
Everything was ready for the descent. Every pre- 
paration was made for the landing of troops under 
Lieutenant-Colonel Chamillard. The summons to 
the chief magistrate was written. It was character- 
istic of the humanity and energy of Captain Jones. 



124 TAUL JONES. 

''I do not wish," he wrote, ''to distress the 
poor inhabitants. My intention is only to demand 
your contribution toward the reimbursement which 
Britain owes to the much injured citizens of Amer- 
ica. Savages would blush at the unmanly violation 
and rapacity that have marked the tracks of British 
tyranny in America, from which neither virgin inno- 
cence nor helpless age has been a plea of protection 
or pity. 

" Leith and its port now lay at our mercy. And 
did not the plea of humanity stay the just hand of 
retaliation, I should, without advertisement, lay it in 
ashes. Before I proceed to that stern duty as an 
officer, my duty as a man induces me to propose to 
you, by means of a reasonable ransom, to prevent 
such a scene of horror and distress. For this reason 
I have authorized Lieutenant-Colonel de Chamillard 
to agree with you on the terms of ransom, allowing 
you exactly half an hour's reflection before you finally 
accept or reject the terms which he shall propose." 

The alarm had reached Leith, and was running 
along the thronged streets of Edinburgh. All was 
hurry and confusion. Crowds were assembled on 
the beach, and were rushing to all the commanding 
heights in the neighborhood. On the northern 
shore of the bay was the thriving little town of 
Kirkaldy. The three vessels passed within a mile 



THE RICHARD AND THE SERAPIS. 1 25 

of the town. It was the morning of the Sabbath. 
Nearly all of the little community were at church. 
Alarmed by the near approach of the squadron, they 
made a general rush to the beach, accompanied by 
their pastor, the Rev. Mr. Shivra. He was a man 
of great eccentricity, and particularly remarkable for 
the familiarity with which he was accustomed to 
address the Deity. Standing upon the beach, with 
uncovered head and uplifted hands, and surrounded 
by his reveren^t flock, it is said that he offered, in 
broad Scotch, the following extraordinary prayer 
It was not extraordinary to them, or irreverent, for 
they had ever been accustomed to such utterances. 

'' Now, dear Lord, dinna ye think it a shame for 
ye to send this vile pirate to rob our folk o' Kirkaldy. 
Ye ken that they are puir enow already, and hae 
naething to spare. The way the wind blaws he'll be 
here in a jiffy. And wha kens what he may do? 
He's nae too good for onything. Mickle's the mis- 
chief he has dune already. He'll burn their hooses, 
tak their very claes, and strip them to the sark. 
And, waes me, wha kens but that the bluidy villain 
might tak their lives ! The puir weemen are most 
frightened out of their wits, and the bairns screech- 
ing after them. I canna think of it! I canna think 
of it ! 

*' I have long been a faithful servant to ye, O 



126 PAUL JONES. 

Lord. But gin yc dinna turn the wind about and 
blaw the scoundrel out of our gate I'll nae stir a 
foot ; but will just sit here till the tide comes. Sae 
tak your will o't." 

Suddenly a violent gale arose, blowing out from 
the harbor. The people of Kirkaldy never doubted 
that it was in consequence of the powerful interces- 
sion of their pastor. ^' I prayed," said the good old 
man often afterward, " but the Lord sent the wind." 
The gale was so violent that it was impossible to 
make any headway against it. The ship which he 
had captured, freighted with coal, had her seams so 
opened by the tornado that she sank to the bottom. 
It was with the greatest difficulty that the crew was 
rescued. Though Jones was almost within gun-shot 
of Leith, after an ineffectual struggle with the 
gale he was obliged to bear away and run out of 
the Frith. 

In the morning, the storm abated and the 
weather fair. Captain Jones was anxious to return 
immediately to the attack. But the other captains 
were unwilling to run the risk. In conference they 
said : 

'' The alarm of our approach has spread through- 
out the whole country. The inhabitants of Leith 
have had several hours to prepare to repel us. The 
city of Edinburgh will certainly have sent all its 



THE RICHARD AND THE SERAPIS. 12/ 

military force into Leith. British men-of-war are all 
along the coast. They will be immediately informed 
of our presence. Unless we disappear we shall be 
overwhelmed by numbers. We dare not remain 
here. If Captain Jones decides to do so, we must 
leave him." 

It may seem very strange that Captain Jones, 
who was the commodore of the fleet, should not 
have had the power to command in such a case. 
But he was crippled, and his energies almost para- 
lyzed, by instructions, which, through the address 
of Landais, had been given to him by the French 
Minister of Marine the evening before he sailed. 

By this singular document, called a concordat, 
the five captains, Jones, Landais, Cottineau, Varage, 
and Ricot, were bound to act together. This 
seemed to make them colleagues, without any su- 
preme head. This unfortunate order, in a military 
point of view, was an absurdity — as absurd as to 
order the commander-in-chief of an army first to 
obtain the approval of all his generals before order- 
ing any important movement. To this wretched 
concordat Captain Jones justly attributed nearly 
all his troubles: Landais, from the beginning, as- 
sumed that he was the colleague of Jones. 

The intrepid Captain Jones could only argue the 
point with his officers. He said : 



128 PAUL JONES. 

** We know that there are no batteries to oppose 
us. There is no naval force in the harbor which we 
cannot instantly silence. The wind is such that we 
can run in and out of the harbor at our pleasure. 
No matter how many thousand men stand on the 
shore with their muskets, they cannot harm us. 
From the harbor we can throw our broadsides of 
shot into the crowded city, and in a short time lay 
it in ashes. We can also destroy all the shipping. 
Rather than submit to this terrible loss, they will 
promptly pay the ransom we demand. Thus, in all 
probability, we have only to sail into the harbor, 
receive the ransom, and go on our way." 

These were strong arguments. They show that 
Captain Jones was not a reckless desperado. His 
plans were maturely considered. Those of his en- 
terprises which appeared most desperate were sanc- 
tioned by the decisions of sound judgment. His 
arguments were unavailing ; and he was compelled 
to yield. In his official account, he says, in mild 
language, which commands our respect for the man : 

" I am persuaded even now that I should have 
succeeded. And to the honor of my young officers, 
I found them as ardently disposed to the business as 
I could desire. Nothing prevented me from pursu- 
ing my design, but the reproach that would have 
been cast upon my character, as a man of prudence, 



THE RICHARD AND THE SERAPIS. 1 29 

had the enterprise miscarried. It would have been 
said : Was he not warned by Captain Cottineau, and 
others?" 

The Alliance having disappeared, there were 
now but two vessels, the Pallas and the Vengeance, 
accompanying the Richard. This little fleet con- 
tinued its course in a southerly direction along the 
eastern coast of Scotland. On the 19th, three ves- 
sels were captured, which were of but little worth. 
The next day three more were taken. One of 
them, Captain Cottineau, contrary to orders, ran- 
somed. The others were either retained or sunk. 
On the 2ist, when off Flamborough Head, a remark- 
ably bold English promontory jutting out from the 
Yorkshire coast, two vessels appeared in sight, one in 
the northeast, and the other in the southwest. The 
Bon Homme Richard and the Vengeance pursued, 
the one in the southwest, while the Pallas was sent 
in chase of the other. Captain Jones overtook the 
one he chased. It was a brig in ballast. As a large 
fleet was then discovered between Flamborough 
Head and Spurn Head, another remarkable pro- 
montory about thirty miles farther south. Captain 
Jones sunk the brig, and pressed forward in pursuit 
of the fleet. While eagerly engaged in the chase, 
night came on. He had, however, got so near one 
vessel of the fleet as to compel her to run ashore. 
6* 



130 PAUL JONES. 

As the twilight faded away he overtook and cap- 
tured a brig. The night was long and dark. The 
affrighted vessels improved every moment in run- 
ning into such harbors as could be reached. 

The dawn of the next day revealed another fleet 
rounding the point of Spurn Head. This fleet was 
convoyed by apparently a single armed ship. The 
achievements of Captain Jones's little fleet had, by 
this time, spread alarm everywhere. As soon as 
the fleet caught sight of the Richard and the Ven- 
geance, though there was nothing to distinguish 
these vessels from others of the innumerable ships 
which were ever traversing the Channel, suspicions 
were aroused, and the whole fleet turned to, and 
fled back into the river Humber, as fast as theii 
wings could bear them. 

Captain Jones ran the English flag to the mast- 
head of the Bon Homme Richard, and signalled for 
a pilot. Soon two pilot-boats came off. The pilots 
supposed the Richard to be an English man-of-war. 
They were consequently unreserved in their com- 
munications. They informed Captain Jones that 
the fleet, which had run back into the Humber, was 
convoyed only by an armed merchant-ship, and that 
a king's frigate was at anchor within the mouth of 
the river, waiting to convoy another fleet of merchant- 
ships to the north. The pilots also communicated 



THE RICHARD AND THE SERAPIS. - I3I 

to him the private signal they were required to 
make. 

With this signal Captain Jones endeavored to 
decoy the frigate out of the harbor. The frigate 
spread its sails, and would soon have been within 
the grasp of its foes, had not the wind changed ; 
which, with a strong, unfavorable tide, compelled the 
ship to return. The entrance of the Humber is dif- 
ficult and dangerous. Captain Jones did not deem 
it prudent, with only one assistant, to attempt an 
attack upon the shipping there. The Pallas was not 
in sight. He therefore turned his course north, to 
meet the Pallas, by previous agreement, off Flam- 
borough Head. 

In the night, Captain Jones saw two ships. It 
was bright moonlight, and he gave them chase. 
Thinking it possible that one might be the Pallas, 
he made the private signal of recognizance, which 
had been communicated to each captain before the 
fleet sailed. He was bewildered by having one-half 
of the answer only returned from one of the vessels. 
Thus embarrassed, he lay to till daylight, when the 
ships proved to be the Pallas and the Alliance. It 
is probable that the Pallas was too far distant to dis- 
cern the signal by moonlight ; and that the ambig- 
uous answer returned was one of the mad pranks of 
Landais. 



132 PAUL JONES. 

On the morning of the 23d they gave chase to a 
brig, which appeared at some distance to the wind- 
ward. At noon, while engaged in this chase, a large 
ship appeared coming round the Head. Captain 
Jones had seized both of the swift-sailing pilot-boats. 
One of them he armed and sent in pursuit of the 
brig. Accompanied by the Vengeance he sailed in 
chase of the ship. The ship ran for protection into 
Burlington Bay. But just then there hove in sight, 
far away in the north of Flamborough Head, a fleet 
of forty-one merchant-ships. It was very certain 
that such a fleet would not be without a strong 
convoy. 

Captain Jones immediately signalled back the 
pilot-boat, and also hung out the signal for a general 
chase. As soon as the fleet discovered the squad- 
ron bearing down upon them, suspecting that it was 
the terrible Captain Jones, the merchant-ships, like 
frightened pigeons, crowded all sail toward the 
shore. There were then six vessels composing Cap- 
tain Jones's squadron, the Richard, the Alliance, the 
Vengeance, the Pallas, and the two pilot-boats. 

It was soon found that there were two ships-of- 
war protecting the merchant fleet. These two, the 
Serapis and the Countess of Scarborough, two of the 
most strongly built and best armed of English fri- 
gates, came steadily forward, preparing for battle. 



THE. RICHARD AND THE SERAPIS. 1 33 

Captain Jones made signal for all his ships to form 
in line of battle, and crowded all sail to reach the 
enemy as soon as possible, for night was at hand. 
Captain Landais paid no attention to the signal. 

It was seven o'clock in the evening when the 
Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis approached 
within hailing distance of each other. The Alliance 
stood sullenly aloof from the conflict. The Ven- 
geance, for some unexplained reason, remained far to 
the windward, and did not come into action. She 
had been commanded to assist in any way she 
could in the battle, or in taking or destroying the 
merchant-ships. The Pallas, under Captain Cotti- 
neau, bore down bravely upon the Countess of Scar- 
borough, and after the bloody conflict of an hour com- 
pelled the white cross of St. George to bow to the 
Stars and the Stripes of the almost nameless repub- 
lic. Thus the Richard was left alone to contend 
with the Serapis. 

The Richard had forty guns. Six of these were 
eighteen-pounders. The rest were twelve, nine, and 
six pounders. Three hundred and seventy-five men 
served these guns. The whole weight of iron balls 
she could throw at one discharge of them all, was 
four hundred and seventy-four pounds. 

The Serapis carried forty-one guns. Twenty of 
these were eighteen-pounders. There were three 



134 PAUL JONES. 

hundred and twenty-five men to work these guns. 
The whole weight of metal the Serapis could throw, 
at one discharge, was six hundred pounds. 

The Serapis was one of the finest of British fri- 
gates, agile and very obedient to her helm. The 
Richard was an old and clumsy merchantman, very 
unwieldy, and poorly fitted for warfare. There was 
a gentle breeze which swelled the sails, and an almost 
unrippled sea. The sun had been set for more than 
a hour. But the moon rose in full splendor, and, 
shining down from a cloudless sky, shed almost 
noonday brilliance over the scene. The vessels 
were but three miles from the rugged cliffs of Flam- 
borough, which seems but a short distance when 
looked upon over the water. Those chffs were 
blackened with the multitudes who had hurried to 
witness the strange, sublime, and yet awful spectacle. 
The coast line and the piers of Scarborough seemed 
also to be crowded with spectators. 

The breeze was so light that the vessels had ap- 
proached each other very slowly. When within 
pistol-shot, and abreast, with bow to bow, the 
Serapis hailed the Richard with the question : 

'' What ship is that ? " 

The answer came back, '' What is it you say ? " 

Again the shout came from the Serapis, " What 



THE RICHARD AND THE SERAPIS. 1 35 

ship is that ? Answer immediately, or I shall fire 
into you." 

Simultaneously both vessels opened their broad- 
sides. The flash glared upon the spectators hke 
lightning from the cloud. Then came the thunder 
peal. The storm of human passion, more dreadful 
than any storm which ever wrecked the skies, had 
begun. The iron hail tore through both of the ships, 
crashing the timbers, scattering death-dealing splin- 
ters in all directions, and strewing the decks with 
the mangled bodies of the dying and the dead. At 
this first discharge two of the eighteen-pounders of 
the Richard burst, kiUing almost every man who 
served them, and so blowing up the deck and creat- 
ing such havoc as to render the remaining four use- 
less. 

Thus Captain Jones's battery of six eighteen- 
pounders was rendered entirely useless, while his 
adversary had twenty eighteen-pounders to hurl 
destruction upon the Richard. The battle was con- 
tinued with unremitting fury. Broadside followed 
broadside in such swift succession that there was a 
continuous flash and a continuous roar. 

It was a wondrous spectacle presented to the 
spectators on land. Both ships were enveloped in 
such a cloud of smoke as to be quite invisible. It 
seemed as though a thunder-cloud, fraught with the 



136 PAUL JONES. 

most dreadful tempests, had descended upon the 
ocean, and that a supernatural strife was raging 
there between unseen spirits of darkness, who hurled 
bolts at each other which illumined the ocean, and 
shook the hills. All who witnessed the terrific 
scene were overwhelmed with emotions of awe 
and dread. This is indeed a fallen world. Through 
all the ages, on the ocean and on the land, man has 
been combining all the energies he could wield for 
the destruction of his brother man. 

Very slowly this war cloud moved along, the man- 
oeuvres of both vessels being entirely concealed from 
those on the shore. Each was constantly endeavor- 
ing to cross each other's track, that thus the ship of 
its opponent might be raked by a broadside which 
would sweep from the bows to the stern. But sev- 
eral of the braces of the Richard were shot away ; 
she would not readily mind the helm, and the bow- 
sprit of the Serapis was thrust across the stern of 
the Richard, near the mizzen-mast. 

Captain Jones grasped the bowsprit with his 
grappling irons, and made the ships fast. The stern 
of the Serapis swung round to the bows of the Ri- 
chard. Thus the ships were brought square alongside 
of each other. Their yards were all entangled. The 
muzzles of their guns often touched. In the mean- 
time the gunners were pouring into each other their 




9>th Position. The two ships foul fore 
and aft ; the Serapis's larboard 
anchor on the bottom, her starboard 
caught in the Richard's starboard 
quarter-port. So both ships remain- 
ed until the close of the action. 

"Uh Position. The Richard runs 
athwart hawse of the Seropis. 

6th Podfion. The Richard fills her 
topsails, and the Serapis backs hers, 
which brings the two ships broad- 
side and broadside. 



5th Position. The Richard backs clear 
of the Serapis. 



4th Position. The Serapis, not having 
room to cross the Richard's bow, 
luffs up, and the Richard runs into 
her quarter. 

M Position. The Serapis rakes the 
Richard and attempts to cross her 
bow. 



2d Position. The Serapis passes to 
windward of the Richard. 



Ist Pontion. Battle begins at 7.30 
P.M. 



k 



THE RICHARD AND THE SERAPIS. 1 3/ 

awful broadsides, creating destruction which was truly 
appalling. Several eighteen-pound shots had pierced 
the Richard at the water's edge, and the water was 
rushing in torrents through the openings. 

A party of twenty soldiers had been placed upon 
the quarter-deck of the Richard, to pick off the gun- 
ners of the enemy, with their muskets. But they 
were assailed by such a murderous storm of grape- 
shot, that torn and bleeding, and leaving many dead 
upon the deck, they ran below. Men were stationed 
high up in the rigging of both the ships, who kept 
up an incessant fire upon all exposed persons. 

The two vessels, sometimes touching each other 
and again separated by but a few feet, moved slowly 
along, side by side, dealing such terrific blows as to 
cause each to stagger. They often crossed each 
other's track, now passing the bow and again the 
stern. Captain Jones's battery of tw^elve-pounders, 
upon which he had placed his main reliance, was 
soon entirely silenced. As in this terrible struggle 
broadside answered broadside. Captain Jones saw 
that the superiority of his enemy in weight of metal 
would inevitably give him the victory, if that mode 
of warfare were continued ; especially as his own 
vessel was old and easily torn to pieces by the foe- 
man's shot, while the Serapis was new, with solid 



138 PAUL JONES. 

timbers almost like ribs of steel. He resolved to 
board the foe. 

In attempting this his vessel became entangled 
with the jib-boom of the Serapis and tore it away. 
The grappling irons were again thrown out, and the 
two ships again swung together, broadside to broad- 
side, so that the muzzles of their guns not unfre- 
quently touched, and the gunners, in ramming down 
the charges, often ran their ramrods into the port- 
holes of their adversary. With his own hand Cap- 
tain Jones aided in tying the lashings, that the ves- 
sels might not again be separated. Still there was 
not a moment's cessation of the cannonading. The 
timbers were torn and rent. Huge gaps were opened 
in the sides of each ship. The cloud of smoke 
which enveloped them was so dense that the com- 
batants, in almost midnight darkness, fought mainly 
by the flash of their guns. 

A hundred men made a rush over the gunwales 
into the Serapis with gleaming swords, exploding 
pistols, and the loudest outcries which frenzy could 
extort. In such hours of blood and terror, shrieks 
aid to embolden the heart and nerve the arm. 
They were met by an equal number of the foe, with 
pike, sabre, pistol, and corresponding yells. What 
imagination can conceive the scene ? In midnight 
darkness, illumined only by war's portentous flashes. 



THE RICHARD AND THE SERAPIS. 1 39 

enveloped in sulphurous smoke, with the crash as 
of ten thousand thunders deafening the ear, more 
than seven hundred men, crowded together in closest 
contact, and wielding the most powerful weapons 
modern art could construct, were butchering each 
other. Limb was torn from hmb. Dead bodies 
strewed the decks, which were slippery with blood. 
Shrieks and groans and prayers and oaths were 
blended with the horrid clamor. Can hell itself 
present a scene more infernal than this. 

And who shall answer for this at God's bar? If 
Abraham was right in arming three hundred and 
eighteen men to pursue the savages for the rescue 
of his nephew Lot, and his family, and if he could 
look for God's blessing upon the enterprise, as he 
certainly could, then were these colonies justified in 
resisting, even to this direful extremity, the attempts 
of haughty England to enslave our land. The bur- 
glar who breaks into the peaceful dweUing at mid- 
night, to rob and murder, may be justly resisted with 
every weapon which frenzy can grasp. The British 
government must answer at the Judgment Seat, for 
these scenes of blood and woe. Truly did Captain 
Jones write to Lady Selkirk. 

" Humanity starts back from such scenes of 
horror, and cannot sufficiently execrate the vile pro- 
moters of the detestable war. 



140 PAUL JONES. 

" For they; 'twas they unsheathed the mthless blade. 
And Heaven shall ask the havoc it has made." 

The boarders were driven back. Leaving many 
dead upon the deck of the Serapis, they were forced, 
pell-mell, over the gunwales, with many a gory 
wound, to the blood-stained decks of the Richard. 
As they fled, the two captains, each on his quarter- 
deck, stood within a few feet of each other. In the 
darkness the flags could not be seen. Captain 
Pearson, of the Serapis, shouted out : 

'* Have you struck your flag ? " 

" No," responded Captain Jones, '' I have not 
yet begun to fight." With his own hands the intre- 
pid captain worked, serving the guns. Though 
blackened with powder and smoke, and painfully 
wounded by a spHnter, he was calm and unagitated, 
watching every movement, but with a firm expression 
on his almost feminine features which indicated that 
he would never, never yield. He endeavored to 
compensate for the superiority of the guns of his foe 
by the rapidity of his own fire. His guns thus 
became greatly heated, and in their terrible rebound 
threatened to break from their fastenings. At every 
discharge his ship trembled from stem to stern. In 
Captain Jones's extremely modest official account, in 
which not one word is said in praise of himself, he 
writes : 



THE RICHARD AND THE SERAPIS. T4I 

*' I directed the fire of one of the three cannon 
against the main-mast with double-headed shot, 
while the other two were exceedingly w^ell served 
with grape and canister shot to silence the enemy's 
musketry, and clear her decks, which was at last 
effected. The enemy were, as I have since, under- 
stood, on the instant for calling for quarter, when 
the cowardice or treachery of three of my under 
officers induced them to call to the enemy. The 
English commodore asked me if I demanded quar- 
ter, and, I having answered him in the most deter- 
mined negative, they renewed the battle with double 
fury. They were unable to stand the deck, but the 
fire of their cannon, especially the lower battery, 
which was entirely formed of eighteen-pounders, 
was incessant. Both ships were set on fire in vari- 
ous places, and the scene was dreadful beyond the 
reach of language. To account for the timidity of 
my three under officers (I mean the gunner, the 
carpenter, and the master-at-arms), I must observe 
that the two first were slightly wounded, and as the 
ship had received various shots under water, and 
one of the pumps being shot away, the carpenter 
expressed his fear that she would sink, and the 
other two concluded that she was sinking, which 
occasioned the gunner to run aft on the poop, with- 
out my knowledge, to strike the colors ; fortunately 



142 PAUL JONES. 

for me, a cannon-ball had done that before, by car 
rying away the ensign staff; he was, therefore, 
reduced to the necessity of sinking — as he sup- 
posed — or of calling for quarter, and he preferred 
the latter." 

There were six feet of water in the hold. The 
flood, in streams, was rushing in. The ship was 
apparently sinking. At that awful moment one of 
the officers rushed below and, with humane inten- 
tions, released three hundred prisoners who were in 
the hold. They came pouring upon deck in a 
frenzy of dismay. Water would drown them in the 
hold. Bullets and cannon-balls would strike them 
on the deck. The Richard was on fire in several 
places. The rudder was cut off the stern-frame, and 
the transoms shot away. Fire had broken out in 
several places. It was burning within a few inches 
of the powder magazine. The timbers on the ship's 
side, from the main-mast to the stern, were entirely 
shot away, so that the balls of the Serapis passed 
directly through, meeting with no obstruction but 
the bodies of men. A few blackened posts alone 
prevented the upper deck from falling. 

The flames were so near the magazine that Cap- 
tain Jones ordered the powder kegs to be brought 
up and thrown into the sea. He compelled the pri- 
soners to work at the pumps, and in the endeavor to 



THE RICHARD AND THE SERAPIS. 143 

extinguish the flames. They were indeed ready 
enough to do this ; for the sinking of the ship would 
drown them, and they were in imminent peril of 
being burned up by the conflagration. 

In the midst of this awful confusion, after the 
battle had raged for two and a half hours, Captain 
Pearson thought he heard the cry of some one on 
board the Richard calling for quarter. This cry 
probably came from the quartermaster. 

" Hearing this," Captain Pearson writes, " I 
called upon the captain, to know if he had struck. 
No answer being made, after repeating my words to 
or three times, I called for the boarders and ordered 
them to board ; which they did. But the moment 
they were on board the Richard, they discovered a 
superior number, lying under cover, with pikes in 
their hands ready to receix-e them ; on which our 
people retreated instantly to their guns again, till 
after ten o'clock." 

The powder-boys of the Serapis, whose business 
it was to bring up the cartridges for the guns, ap- 
palled by the horrible scene, of dismounted guns, 
mutilation, and death, scarcely knowing what they 
did, threw the cartridges upon the deck, and went 
back for more. The cartridges were trampled upon 
and broken. The deck was soon quite covered with 
cartridges and loose powder. A hand grenade, 



144 PAUL JONES. 

thrown from the Richard, set fire to this, and pro- 
duced an awful explosion. 

The effect was horrible. More than twenty were 
instantly blown to pieces. Many others had every 
particle of clothing blown from their bodies, and 
were thrown down, writhing in agony, blackened, and 
scorched almost to cinders, Captain Pearson, in his 
official report says : 

*' A hand grenade, being thrown in at one of the 
lower ports a cartridge of powder was set on fire ; 
the flames of which, running from cartridge to car- 
tridge all the way aft, blew up the whole of the peo- 
ple and officers that were quartered abaft the main- 
mast ; from which unfortunate circumstances, all 
those guns were rendered useless for the remainder 
of the action, and I fear that the greater part of the 
people will lose their lives." 

Just before ten oclock the Alliance, which had 
stood aloof during all these hours, made her appear- 
ance; I must give this extraordinary occurrence in 
the words of Captain Jones. 

" I now thought," he wrote, " that the battle was 
at an end. But to my utter astonishment he dis- 
charged a broadside full into the stern of the Bon 
Homme Richard. We called to him for God's sake 
to forbear. Yet he passed along the off side of the 
ship, and continued firing. There was no possibil- 



THE RICHARD AND THE SERAPIS. I45 

ity of his mistaking the enemy's ship for the Bon 
Homme Richard, there being the most essential dif- 
ference in their appearance and construction. Be- 
sides it was then full moonlight, and the sides of the 
Bon Homme Richard were all black, and the sides of 
the enemy's ship were yellow. Yet for the greater 
security I showed the signal for our reconnoisance, by 
putting out three lanterns, one at the bo\v, one at 
the stern, and one at the middle, in a horizontal 
line. 

'' Every tongue cried that he was firing into the 
wrong ship, but nothing availed. He passed round 
firing into the Bon Homme Richard, head, stern, and 
broadside, and by one of his volleys killed several 
of my best men, and mortally wounded a good 
officer of the forecastle. My situation was truly 
deplorable. The Bon Homme Richard received 
several shots under the water from the Alliance. 
The leak gained on the pumps ; and the fire increased 
much on board both ships. Some officers entreated 
me to strike, of whose courage and sense I entertain 
a high opinion. I would not, however, give up the 
point." 

The fire from the tops of the Richard had struck 

down every man on the quarter-deck of the Serapis. 

Captain Jones's guns had so cut the main-mast of 

the foe that it reeled and fell with a fearful crash, 

7 



146 PAUL JONES. 

tearing down with it spars and rigging, and leaving 
the ship almost a helpless wreck. Flames were 
bursting forth in several places. Captain Pearson 
saw that all was lost. With his own hands he struck 
his flag. 

Lieutenant Richard Dale immediately, with the 
consent of Captain Jones, jumped upon the gunwale, 
seized the main-brace pendant, and swung himself 
upon the quarter-deck of the captured ship. He 
was followed by Midshipman Mayrant, with a large 
party of sailors. The confusion was so great that it 
was not known, at that moment, throughout either 
ship, that the Serapis had surrendered. One of the 
enemy, stationed at the waist, ran his boarding-pike 
through the thigh of the midshipman. 

Lieutenant Dale found Captain Pearson standing 
aside, the image of despair, on the leeward of the 
quarter-deck. Addressing the unfortunate captain 
respectfully, he said : 

'* Sir, I have orders to send you on board the 
ship alongside." 

The first lieutenant of the Serapis, coming up at 
this moment, inquired : 

*' Has the enemy struck her flag?" 

'* No, sir," Lieutenant Dale replied. " On the 
contrary, you have struck to us." 



^. 



THE RICHARD AND THE SERAPIS. 1 47 

The lieutenant of the Serapis, turning anxiously 
to Captain Pearson, inquired : 

^* Have you struck, sir." 

'' Yes, I have ! " was the sad, laconic reply. 

All this occupied scarcely one minute. It was 
near midnight. Darkness and suffocating smoke 
enveloped the combatants. Random firing had 
not yet ceased, though on both ships nearly all the 
cannon had been dismounted. 

The lieutenant of the Serapis replied, '' I have 
nothing more to say." He turned about and was 
going below when Lieutenant Dale courteously 
arrested him saying, " It is my duty to request you 
sir, to accompany Captain Pearson on board the 
ship alongside." 

" If you will first permit me," the lieutenant re- 
plied, *'to go below, I will silence the firing of the 
lower deck guns." 

'' This cannot be permitted," was the reply. 
The two distinguished captives passed over to the 
deck of the Bon Homme Richard. Orders were 
sent below to cease firing. Thus terminated this 
most memorable of naval conflicts, after a bloody 
battle, with muzzle to muzzle, of nearly three hours 
and a half. Through all time, in all naval chronicles 
the battle between the Bon Homme Richard and 
the Serapis will occupy a conspicuous position. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Result of the Victory. 

Dreadful Spectacle. — Sinking of the Bon Homme Richard. — Escape 
of the Baltic Fleet. — Sails for the Texel. — Interesting Correspon- 
dence. — Sufferings of the American Prisoners. — Barbarity of the 
English Government. — Humanity of Captain Jones. — The Trans- 
ference from the Serapis to the Alliance. — Extracts from the 
British Press. — Release of Prisoners. 

After the excitement of the conflict was over, 
Captain Jones was shocked at the spectacle of de- 
vastation and misery which was presented to him. 
All sense of triumph was lost in emotions of com- 
passion and sadness. In his official journal he 
wrote : 

" A person must have been an eye-witness to 
form a just idea of the tremendous scene of carnage, 
wreck, and ruin that everywhere appeared. Hu- 
manity cannot but recoil from the prospect of such 
finished horror, and lament that war should pro- 
duce such fatal consequences." 

The carpenters were immediately employed in 
examining- the Bon Homme Richard, to see if her 



RESULT OF THE VICTORY. I49 

wounds were capable of being healed. The lashings 
were cut which bound her to the Serapis, and all the 
available hands were employed, at the pumps, to 
keep her afloat. Captain Jones took possession of 
his shattered prize, the Serapis, to which he trans- 
ferred all the crew, excepting those which attended 
the pumps. Boats were in waiting, ready to take 
them on board the Serapis should the water gain 
upon them too fast. The surveying officers soon 
reported unanimously, that the ship could not be 
kept afloat long enough to reach port. It took all 
the night, and some hour's the next morning hastily 
but carefully to remove the wounded. 

Captain Jones was very anxious to save the ship, 
and made every possible effort until nine o'clock the 
next evening. The water was then up to her lower 
deck. She rolled in the waves in utter helpless- 
ness, threatening every moment to go down. The 
water was gushing from her port-holes and swash- 
ing through her hatchways. It was necessary at 
once to abandon her. From the deck of the Serapis 
Captain Jones sadly watched the dying convulsions 
of his '' good old ship." He wrote : 

" We did not abandon her till after nine o'clock. 
A httle after ten, I saw, with inexpressible grief, the 
last glimpse of the Bon Homme Richard. No lives 
were lost with the ship ; but it was impossible to 



150 PAUL JONES. 

save the stores of any sort whatever. I lost the 
best part of my clothes, books, and papers. Several 
of my officers lost all their clothes and effects." 

Making one or two dying surges, the Richard 
plunged headlong into the fathomless abyss, carrying 
her dead with her to their sublime ocean burial. 
There the mangled bodies will repose till, at the 
summons of the archangel's trump, the sea shall 
give up the dead that are in it. According to the 
most accurate estimate which can be made, forty- 
two were killed, and forty severely wounded. Light 
wounds were not counted. There was no accurate 
account taken of the killed and wounded on board 
tlie Serapis. The surgeon's report to the British 
Admiralty, gives the number of wounded at sev- 
enty-five, but does not give the number killed. Cap- 
tain Pearson states that there were many more 
wounded than appears on the surgeon's list. Cap- 
tain Jones, who had the best opportunity for know- 
ing, and who was not given to exaggeration, esti- 
mates the killed at one hundred, and the wounded 
at about the same number. 

Captain Landais, of the Alliance, was court-mar- 
tialed for his atrocious conduct. There can be no 
reasonable doubt, from the evidence given on his 
trial, that he hoped the Serapis would conquer and 
capture the Bon Homme Richard. During the con- 



RESULT OF THE VICTORY. 151 

flict he kept entirely out of harm's way, so that not a 
shot struck him. After the Richard had surrendered 
Captain Landais intended to come forward, attack 
the Serapis exhausted and shattered by its previous 
conflict, and with her guns dismounted and encum- 
bered by the wounded and the dead, and thus make 
an easy conquest of the British ship and rescue her 
prize. He could thus retire with glory ^ dragging the 
Serapis and the Bon Homme Richard in his train. 
Finding it a little doubtful whether the Richard 
would yield, he concluded to help the Serapis. 
Three of his officers declared that Landias said to 
them : 

" I should have thought it no harm if the Bon 
Homme Richard had struck her flag. That would 
have given me an opportunity to take the Serapis 
and to retake her." 

I must now leave Landais, for the present, though 
I shall have occasion to refer to him again. The 
Baltic fleet escaped. The fact is easily explained 
from the loss of the Richard, the crippled state of 
the Serapis, with both main-mast and mizzen-mast 
dragging at her sides, and the treacherous conduct 
of Landais. Jury-masts were erected upon the 
Serapis, and for ten days the shattered ship was 
tossed on the stormy waves of the North Sea. Cap- 
tain Jones was striving to reach Dunkirk, the most 



152 PAUL JONES. 

northerly and consequently the nearest seaport in 
France. 

In the extreme northwest of Holland there is a 
somewhat renowned island called the Texel. It is 
about thirteen miles long and six broad, and is situ- 
ated near the mouth of the Zuyder Zee, or South 
Sea, as that portion of the German Ocean is called. 
It is nearly two hundred miles north of the most 
northerly frontier of France. Contrary winds, and 
the extremely suffering state of the prisoners and his 
wounded, rendered it necessary for him to run into 
that neutral port. 

Captain Jones never made any complaint respect- 
ing his own hardships. But while upon this event- 
ful campaign his toils, responsibilities, and anxieties 
had been such that during the whole time he had 
never indulged in more than three hours' sleep 
in the twenty-four. The news of the capture of 
the Serapis spread rapidly through Europe and 
America. The haughty attitude England had ever 
assumed had rendered her unpopular with all other 
nations. Consequently there was a general rejoicing 
over the great victory of Captain Jones. It was 
something new for England to lose one of her finest 
frigates in a fairly fought battle with an inferior force. 

It is said that this terrible battle between the 
Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis was more 



RESULT OF THE VICTORY. 1 53 

noised abroad over the world than any naval con- 
flict ever engaged in, in ancient or modern times. 
It was a marvel to all Europe to see an English ship 
of war, hitherto generally supposed to be invincible, 
strike to a frigate of the feeble colonies of America, 
which had, as yet, scarcely a national name and whose 
flag was unknown. The superiority of the British 
ship, both in build and in armament, the treacherous 
conduct of Landais, and the desperate resistance of 
both parties, apparently to the last possible degree, 
excited astonishment and admiration both in the 
Old World and the New. Captain Jones was the hero 
of the day. His name was upon all lips. The en- 
thusiasm in Paris was almost boundless. Dr. Frank- 
lin wrote to him under date of October 15th, 1779: 

" For some days after the arrival of your express, 
scarce anything was talked of at Paris or Versailles 
but your cool conduct and persevering bravery dur- 
ing that terrible conflict. You may believe that the 
impression on my mind was not less strong than on 
that of others, but I do not choose to say, in a let- 
ter to yourself, all I think on such an occasion." 

He informed Captain Jones that he had written 
to Landais, informing him that he v/ould have an 
opportunity, before a court-martial, to answer the 
charges of disobedience of orders and neglect of duty 
which had been brought against him. As it was 

7* 



154 i'AUL JONES. 

impracticable immediately to organize a court-mar- 
tial, he was for the time relieved from the command 
of the Alliance. He added : 

*' I know not whether Captain Landais will obey 
my orders, nor what the ministry will do with him if 
he comes. But I suspect that they may, by some of 
their concise operations, save the trouble of a court- 
martial." 

It subsequently appeared that Landais had pre- 
viously been dismissed from the French service for 
insubordination. This fact was not known to Con- 
gress when he was assigned to the command of the 
Alliance. They simply knew that he was a French- 
man of illustrious family, of great pretensions, and 
who had been an officer in the French navy. Con- 
gress inconsiderately, in its anxiety to compliment 
France, placed him in a position which his eccentric 
passions totally disqualified him from filling. 

Landais wrote to Dr. Franklin soliciting another 
command. In a very characteristic reply, dated 
March I2th, 1780, Dr. Franklin wrote: 

" No one has ever learned the opinion I formed 
of you, from the inquiry made into your conduct. I 
kept it entirely to myself, I have not even hinted it 
in my letters to America, because I would not hazard 
giving any one a bias to your prejudice. 

'* By communicating a part of that opinion pri- 



RESULT OF THE VICTORY. 155 

vately to you I can do no harm, for you may burn it. 
I should not give you the pain of reading it, if your 
demand did not make it necessary. 

*' I think you then, so imprudent, so Htigious and 
quarrelsome a man, even with your best friends, that 
peace and good order, and consequently the quiet 
and regular subordination so necessary to success, 
are, where you preside, impossible. These are with- 
in my observation and apprehension. Your miilitary 
operations I leave to more capable judges. If, there- 
fore, I had twenty ships of war, I should not give one 
of them to Captain Landais. The same temper 
which excluded him from the French marine would 
weigh equally with me." 

It was one important object of Captain Jones to 
get prisoners, that by an exchange he might release 
the American prisoners who were suffering the most 
barbarous treatment in the prisons of England. He 
carried with him into the Texel, five hundred Bri- 
tish captives. Franklin proposed to the British gov- 
ernment to exchange them for an equal number of 
Americans. But the ministry refused. They sent a 
large number of men-of-war to watch the channel, 
and cruise off the Texel, quite confident that they 
should be able to capture the prisoners as soon as 
any attempt was made to transport them to France. 
For some time they refused to exchange American 



156 PAUL JONES. 

prisoners on any terms. They would surrender the 
French captives alone, in return for the English. 

The sympathies of kind-hearted Captain Jones 
were deeply moved in behalf of the captive Ameri- 
cans. And yet his feelings would not allow him to 
retaliate in treating with inhumanity the British pri- 
soners in his hands. They were generally poor and 
ignorant men. Not a few had been impressed into 
the service. They were not responsible for the cru- 
elty of the government, over which they had no 
control. There was a large party in England totally 
opposed to this unrighteous war, and still more op- 
posed to the barbarity with which the government 
was conducting it. 

When it was proposed and carried in Parliament 
to employ the savages as the allies of Great Britain, 
— to hire the savages, with torch and tomahawk and 
scalping knife, in midnight assault, to burn the log- 
cabins and butcher the helpless women and children 
in their lonely homes, far away in the wilderness, 
hundreds of voices were raised in indignant remon- 
strance. The Earl of Chatham exclaimed, in the 
House of Lords, in one of the most eloquent and 
impassioned of addresses : 

*' I am astonished, I am shocked, to hear such 
principles confessed ; to hear them avowed in this 
house or in this country. Were I an American, as I 



RESULT OF THE VICTORY. 1 57 

am an Engrishman, I would never lay down my arms 
— never, never never." 

One of the London Journals of September 21st, 
1779, contains the following notice: "The master 
of a sloop from Harwich, who arrived yesterday, saw 
on Saturday last, no less than eleven sail-of-war 
going in search of Paul Jones, and among them was 
the Edgar of seventy-four guns. By the examina- 
tion of four men, belonging to one of Paul Jones's 
squadron, it appears that Jones's orders were not to 
burn any houses or towns. What an example of 
honor and greatness does America thus show to us. 
While our troops are running about from town to 
town on their coast, burning everything with a wan- 
ton wicked barbarity, Dr. Frankhn gives no orders to 
retaliate. He is above it. And there was a time 
when an English minister would have disdained to 
make war in so villanous a mode. It is a disgrace 
to the nation." 

The London Chronicle of October 17th, 1779, con- 
tained the following notice : '' Last Tuesday Paul 
Jones, with his prizes, the Serapis and Scarborough, 
entered the Texel, and appeared on the exchange, 
where business gave way to curiosity. The crowd 
pressing upon him, by whom he was styled the terror 
of the English, he withdrew to a room fronting a 
public square, where Monsieur Donneville, the 



158 PAUL JONES. 

French agent, and the Americans, paid him such a 
volley of compliments, and such homage as he could 
only answer with a bow. He was dressed in the 
American uniform, with a Scotch bonnet edged with 
gold ; is of a middling stature, stern countenance, and 
swarthy complexion. 

Captain Cunningham had received a commission 
for a privateer, from Commissioners Franklin and 
Deane. He had cruised in the Channel with great 
success, and had become quite a terror to the Eng- 
lish. Being captured he was treated with such 
barbarity that Congress twice passed resolutions 
threatening retaliation. But the humanity of the 
nation recoiled from plunging innocent men into 
loathsome dungeons, and freezing and starving them, 
to retaliate for crimes committed by those who were 
clothed in purple and fine Hnen and who fared sump- 
tuously every day. Captain Jones wrote to Dr. 
Franklin, from Amsterdam, under the date of 
October nth, 1779: 

'' As I am informed that Captain Cunningham is 
threatened with unfair play by the British govern- 
ment, I am determined to keep in my hands the 
captain of the Serapis, as a hostage for Cunning- 
ham's release as a prisoner of war. I wish heartily 
that poor Cunningham, whom I am taught to regard 
as a Continental officer, was exchanged, as with his 



RESULT OF THE VICTORY. 1 59 

assistance I could form a court-martial, which I 
believe you will see unavoidable." 

Captain Pearson and the other British prisoners 
were provided for, in all respects, as comfortably as 
circumstances would allow. And yet the English 
captain wrote the following curious complaint to his 
illustrious captor. We do not feel at liberty to cor- 
rect his bad grammar. The letter was dated October 
19th, 1799. 

" Captain Pearson presents his compliments to 
Captain Jones, and is sorry to find himself so little 
attended to in his present situation, as not to have 
been favored with either a Call or a line from Cap- 
tain Jones since his return from Amsterdam. Cap- 
tain Pearson is sorry to say that he cannot look upon 
such behavior in any other light than as a breach of 
that Civility which his rank, as well as behavior on 
all occasions entitles to; he, at the same time, 
wishes to be informed, by Captain Jones, whether 
any steps has been taken towards the enlargement or 
exchange of him, his officers and people, or what is 
intended to be done with them. As he cannot help 
thinking it a very unprecedented circumstance their 
being keeped here as prisoners, on board of ship, 
being so long in a neutral port." 

The dignified reply of Captain Jones deserves 
insertion in full. The English Government, through 



l6o PAUL JONES. 

its ambassador at the Hague, had positively refused 
to ransom the EngHsh prisoners, at the Texel, by 
exchanging for them American prisoners. Captain 
Pearson could not have been ignorant of this fact. 
The reply was dated on board the Serapis, October 
20th, 1779. 

" As you have not been prevented from corre- 
sponding with your friends, and particularly with 
the English ambassador at the Hague, I could not sup- 
pose you to be unacquainted with his memorial of the 
8th, to the States General, and therefore I thought it 
fruitless to pursue the negociation for the exchange 
of the prisoners of war now in our hands. 

" I wished to avoid any painful altercation with 
you on that subject. I was persuaded that you had 
been in the highest degree sensible that my beha- 
vior toward you had been far from a breach of civil- 
ity. This charge, sir, is not a civil return for the 
polite hospitality and disinterested attentions you 
have hitherto experienced. 

" I know not what difference of respect is due to 
Rank between your service and ours. I suppose 
however the difference must be thought very great m 
England, since I am informed that Captain Cunning- 
ham, of equal denomination, and who bears a senior 
rank, in the service of America, than yours in the 



RESULT OF THE VICTORY. l6l 

service of England, is now confined in England, in a 
dungeon and in fetters ! 

" Humanity, which has hitherto superseded the 
plea of retaliation in American breasts, has induced 
me, notwithstanding the procedure of Sir Joseph 
Yorke,^ to seek after permission to land the danger- 
ously wounded, as well prisoners as Americans, to be 
supported and cured at the expense of our continent. 
The permission of the government has been ob- 
tained ; but the magistrates continue to make ob- 
jections. I shall not discontinue my application. I 
am ready to adopt any means you may propose for 
their preservation and recovery ; and, in the mean- 
time, we shall continue to treat them with the ut- 
most care and attention, equally, as you know, to the 
treatment of our people of the same rank. 

" As it is possible that you have not yet seen 
the memorial of your ambassador to the States Gen- 
eral, I enclose a paper which contains a copy. And 
I think he has since written what, in the opinion of 
good men, will do still less honor to his pen. I can- 
not conclude without informing you that unless Cap- 

* Sir Joseph Yorke was the British ambassador at the Hague. 
He insisted that the Dutch Government should take from Captain 
Jones, the Serapis and the Countess of Scarborough. He said that 
as England had not recognized the United States, the captures were 
illegal, as a commission had not been granted to Captain Jones by a 
sovereign power. 



l62 PAUL JONES. 

tain Cunningham is immediately better treated in 
England, I expect orders, in consequence, from his 
Excellency, Dr. Franklin. Therefore, I beseech you, 
sir, to interfere." 

The British Government, by threats, so intimi- 
dated the States General, that they disavowed any 
intention of recognizing the Independence of the 
United States. They refused to furnish Captain 
Jones with any munitions of war, and ordered him 
immediately to leave the Texel. This seemed to 
insure his utter destruction ; for powerful British 
men-of-war were cruising just off the island, on the 
watch to grasp him the moment he should put to sea. 

In a memorial which the British minister. Sir 
Joseph Yorke, presented on the 29th of September, 
he wrote : 

" I cannot but comply with the strict orders of 
his majesty (the king of England) by renewing, in 
the strongest and most pressing manner his request, 
that these ships and their crews may be stopped and 
delivered up, which the pirate Paul Jones, of Scot- 
land, who is a rebel subject, and a criminal of the 
state, has taken." He also demanded that all the 
officers of the United States navy should be treated 
as pirates ; for their commissions were illegal, not 
having been granted by a government which Eng- 
land had recognized as a sovereign power. 



RESULT OF THE VICTORY. 163 

But the French Government promptly and effi- 
ciently interfered. It assured the States General 
that though Captain Jones received his commission 
from the Congress of the United States, still that he 
also sailed under the sanction of the flag of France, 
in a French ship, and that the French flag covered 
the prizes he had captured. The sympathies of the 
Dutch Government were with America. Under this 
complicated state of affairs it was decided that prizes 
which Captain Jones had taken with French ships, 
should be regarded as prizes belonging to the king 
of France ; and that Captain Jones should take com- 
mand of the American frigate the Alliance. 

In obedience with this order, at midnight, Cap- 
tain Jones, having delivered to the French ambassa- 
dor the ships and prizes which were deemed to 
belong to the French king, took command of the 
Alliance, and surrendered the Serapis to Captain 
Cottineau of the Pallas. The eccentric if not insane 
Landais quarrelled with almost every one who ap- 
proached him. He challenged Captain Cottineau to 
a duel. He was a very accompHshed swordsman. 
Very unwisely. Captain Cottineau, who was not 
particularly skilful with that weapon, allowed his 
insulting opponent, in addition to many other 
wrongs and outrages, the privilege of thrusting his 
sword through his opponent's body, inflicting a very 



1 64 PAUL JONES. 

painful, disabling, and dangerous wound. Landais 
then sent a similar challenge to Captain Jones, who 
very properly replied by sending officers to arrest 
him. Upon this he fled and made his way to Paris, 
where we shall again hear of him. 

Extracts from Captain Jones's letters will show, 
better than any description, the noble character of 
this truly noble man ; a man who has been strangely 
misrepresented. He wrote to the Marquis de Lafay- 
ette, from the Serapis, at the Texel, on the 28th of 
October, 1779 • 

'' The late brutahties of the Britons in America 
fill me with horror and indignation. They forget 
that they are men. And I believe that nothing will 
bring them to their senses but the most exemplary 
retaliation. 

" I wish to answer, very particularly, the points 
which you have propounded. 1st, I never meant to 
ask a reward for my services, either from France or 
America. Consequently the approbation of the 
Court and of the Congress is all the gratification I can 
wish for. 2d, I yet intend to undertake whatever 
the utmost exertion of my abilities will reach in sup- 
port of the common cause, as far as any force that 
may in future be intrusted to my direction may 
enable to succeed." 

One of the London journals, of September 29th, 



RESULT OF THE VICTORY. 165 

1779, gives the following amusing exaggeration of 
the force under Captain Jones's command, and of the 
terror his achievements had inspired : 

*'An express has arrived from Aymouth with 
information that Paul Jones was off there with five 
ships of war and two thousand troops ; that on the 
19th they appeared off Sunderland and put the 
inhabitants into great confusion, as they expected 
them to land every hour, or destroy the ships in the 
harbor." 

Another London journal gives the following 
account of this celebrated cruise : 

" On Saturday noon two gentlemen of the cor- 
poration of Hull arrived express at the Admiralty, 
with the alarming account that the celebrated Amer- 
ican Corsair, Paul Jones, had entered the river Hum- 
ber, on Thursday last, and chased a vessel within a 
mile of the pier, where he sunk, burned, and de- 
stroyed sixteen valuable vessels, which threw the 
whole town and neighborhood into the utmost con- 
sternation. 

" On Saturday night another express arrived, at 
the Admiralty, with the further disagreeable intelli- 
gence that Paul Jones's squadron, after having done 
more mischief to the shipping on Friday, had fallen 
in with the Baltic fleet, had taken their convoy, the 
Serapis man-of-war, of forty-four guns, and the armed 



l66 PAUL JONES. 

ship, the Countess of Scarborough, of twenty-four 
guns. This action was seen by thousands of specta- 
tors. The other ships of Jones's squadron were mak- 
ing havoc among the fleet, most of which, however, 
had taken shelter near Flamborough Head. 

'' From four captured Americans it was discovered 
that it was Jones's plan to alarm the coasts of Wales, 
Ireland, the western parts of Scotland, and the North 
Channel. He took several prizes on the coast of 
Ireland, particularly two armed transports with 
stores for New York. He had it in his power to 
burn Leith ; but his orders are only to burn ship- 
ping. His squadron is now but weakly manned, 
owing to the great number of prizes he has taken ; 
and it, therefore, may fall an easy conquest to the 
sixteen sail of men-of-war who have orders to go 
after him. 

" Expresses also arrived on Saturday, from Sun- 
derland, stating that Paul Jones had taken sixteen 
more sail of colliers. In consequence of the capture 
of so many colliers and the interruption of the trade, 
the price of coal will be enormous. Instead of hav- 
ing the dominion of the sea, it is now evident that 
we are not able to defend our own coast from depre- 
dations. Yesterday Lord Sandwich informed some 
Russian merchants that twenty of his Majesty's 
ships were sent in quest of Paul Jones." ^ 



RESULT OF THE VICTORY. 1 6/ 

Franklin, who was ever in very cordial sympathy 
with Paul Jones, wrote him many and very affec- 
tionate letters when the heroic conqueror, entirely 
destitute of funds, was surrounded with embarrass- 
ments, at the Texel, sufficient to break down the 
spirits and to crush the energies of any ordinary 
man. It was indeed a question how the prisoners 
were to be conveyed to France. Those northern 
seas were swarming with English ships, whose com- 
manders were intensely anxious to capture the com- 
missioned naval officer of the United States, whose 
commission was ratified by alliance with France, and 
whom they still had the insolence to stigmatize as a 
pirate. Franklin wrote to him, under date of Octo- 
ber 15, 1779: 

'' I am uneasy about your prisoners. I wish they 
were safe in France. You will then have completed 
the glorious work of giving liberty to all the Ameri- 
cans, who have so long languished for it in the Bri- 
tish prisons; for there are not so many there as you 
have now taken." 

Paul Jones, in command of his squadron, was 
rightly entitled to the designation of commodore. 
He was so regarded by the French court, who had 
intrusted to him the fleet. He is thus addressed 
by the Duke of Vauguyon. In a letter, under date 



1 68 PAUL JONES. 

of December 21, 1779, addressed to Commodore 
Jones, the duke writes: 

'* I have received, my dear commodore, the let- 
ter you have addressed to me. I perceive, with 
pain, that you do not view your situation in the 
right light. I can assure you that the ministers of 
the king have no intention to cause you the least 
disagreeable feelings, as the honorable testimonials 
of the esteem of his majesty, which I send you, 
ought to convince you." 

Every eminent man must have rivals and ene- 
mies. There were scores of French officers hunger- 
ing for high command. They envied the renown of 
Jones. They complained that they were neglected, 
while a foreigner was intrusted with the command 
of French ships. Many of these complainants were 
nobles of great wealth as well as illustrious rank. 
The French ministry thus had great embarrassments 
to encounter. They appreciated highly the services 
of Commodore Jones. They were very desirous of 
immediately giving him new employment. And yet 
they felt under the necessity of leaving him, for a 
time, in idleness, greatly to his chagrin. The impa- 
tience he manifested under these circumstances 
reflect honor upon his patriotic enthusiasm. He 
wrote to the Duke of Vauguyon, on the 25th of 
December, 1779, as follows: 



RESULT OF THE VICTORY. 1 69 

" You do me great honor as well- as justice, my 
lord, by observing that no satisfaction can be more 
precious to me than that of giving new proofs of my 
zeal for the common cause of France and America. 
And the interest you take to facilitate the means of 
my giving such proofs, by essential services, claims 
my best thanks. I hope I shall not, through any 
imprudence of mine, render ineffectual any noble 
design that may be in contemplation for the general 
good. Whenever that object is mentioned, my 
private concerns are out of the question. 

" With a deep sense of your generous sentiments 
of personal regard toward me, and with the most 
sincere wishes to meet that regard by my conduct 
through hfe, I am," etc. 

The Dutch Government, goaded by the menaces 
of England, though it dared not command the 
French ships to leave its ports, insisted that the 
American commodore, whose government Holland 
had not yet recognized, should immediately, with 
the American frigate the Alliance, leave the Texel. 
But there were twelve British men-of-war, at the 
mouth of the harbor, watching for him. Eight were 
at the northern entrance of the port, and four at the 
southern. 

Commodore Jones, for I shall henceforth give 

him the designation to which I consider him justly 
8 



I/O PAUL JONES. 

entitled, kept the banner of the Stars and Stripes 
proudly floating from the mast-head of the Alliance. 
He also unflinchingly declared that he never bore any 
commission but that which he received from the 
Congress of the United States of America. It was 
said that there were, in all, forty British men-of-war 
cruising in the German Ocean, so as to render the 
escape of Paul Jones impossible. The Dutch 
admiral, on the I2th, informed him they must insist 
upon his sailing with the first fair wind. 

To add to his embarrassments he found that 
Landais had left the Alliance in the most deplorable 
condition, totally unfit for service without extensive 
repairs. She was an admirable ship in model and 
construction, and was remarkable for her sailing 
qualities. But, through sheer negligence and general 
demoralization, nearly everything was in a ruinous 
condition. The sails were worn out. The cables 
had gone to decay. Her battery was in a condition 
unfit for action, and her small arms quite out of 
order. Most of the powder had either become dam- 
^aged by leakage, or rendered unfit for use by neglect- 
ing to turn the kegs. The officers were all quarrel- 
ling with each other, and the men insubordinate. 
Intemperance and the want of cleanliness, with the 
total absence of discipline, had struck down many 
of the crew \vith epidemical diseases. 



RESULT OF THE VICTORY. I /I 

Commodore Jones made the most vigorous efforts 
to prepare the AlHance for sea; and he promised the 
government that he would leave, at all hazards, as 
soon as the wind would serve. But before he sailed 
he enjoyed the great gratification of learning that 
Dr. Franklin had succeeded in obtaining the libera- 
tion of all the American prisoners in England, by 
exchanging for them the prisoners Commodore 
Jones had captured. He also had the happiness of 
grasping the hand, at the Texel, of Captain Cunning- 
ham, who, by the energies of Commodore Jones, had 
been rescued from the most dreadful bondage. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Commodore Jones at Court. 

Offer of a Privateersman. — Indignant Reply. — The Renown of Com- 
modore Jones. — Successful Retreat. — Cruise through the Chan- 
nel. — Poetic Effusion, — Enters Corunna. — Letter to Lafayette. — 
Embarrassed Finances of Franklin. — Intrigues of Landais. — His 
Efforts to Excite Mutiny. — Testimony against him. — Commo- 
dore Jones at Court. 

It was indeed running the gauntlet, for Commo- 
dore Jones, with a frigate of but thirty-four guns, 
and in poor saiHng trim, to escape from the Texel, 
and run down the German Ocean, through the Eng- 
lish Channel and the Straits of Dover, to some 
French port, when the whole available force of the 
British navy was on the lookout for him, with 
twelve men-of-war cruising before the mouth of the 
harbor. It would seem that, under those circum- 
stances, escape were impossible. 

Just before sailing, the French minister, M. de la 
Sartine, offered Commodore Jones, through the 
Duke de Vauguyon, a commission as captain of a 
privateersman, which several gentleman of wealth 
had fitted out, in the best possible manner, to enrich 



COMMODORE JONES AT COURT. 173 

themselves by preying upon British commerce. 
This assumption that Commodore Jones was a 
mere adventurer, guided by the love of money, he 
regarded as an insult. In indignant terms he re- 
jected the offer. Under date of December 13th, he 
wrote to the duke, as follows : 

" My Lord : Perhaps there are many men in the 
world, who would esteem as an honor the commis- 
sion that I have this day refused. My rank, from 
the beginning, knew no superior in the marine of 
America. How then must I be humbled were I to 
receive a letter of marque. It is a matter of the 
highest astonishment to me that, after so many com- 
pliments and fair professions, the court should offer 
the present insult to my understanding, and suppose 
me capable of disgracing my present commission, I 
confess that I never merited all the praise bestowed 
on my past conduct ; but I also feel that I have far 
less merited such a reward." 

The letter containing these sentiments he en- 
closed in one to Dr. Franklin, that it might be pre- 
sented by him to the duke, if it met his approval. 
In his letter he still more forcibly gave expression 
to his wounded feelings. The heroic man added : 

" We hear that the enemy still keeps a squadron 
cruising off here. But this shall not prevent my at- 
tempts to depart, whenever the wind will permit. 



174 PAUL JONES. 

I hope we have recovered the trim of this ship, 
which was entirely lost during the last cruise ; and I 
do not much fear the enemy in the long and dark 
nights of this season. The ship is well-manned, and 
shall not be given away. I need not tell you, that I 
will do my utmost to take prisoners and prizes, in 
my way from hence." 

The great victory Commodore Jones had achieved 
gave him singular renown. The ladies, especially, 
were charmed by his chivalry. He received con- 
stant attentions from the most eminent in rank. 
The palace and the castle opened their doors to 
welcome him. He had the most urgent invitations 
to visit Amsterdam and to enjoy the hospitalities of 
the court. But all these flattering attentions he 
avoided as much as possible. One great passion ab- 
sorbed his soul. All his energies were consecrated 
to the subhme mission of emancipating the United 
States, and ennobling their flag. 

*' Duty," he said, *' must take the precedence of 
pleasure. I must wait a more favorable opportunity 
to kiss the hands of the fair.** 

The Alliance had a picked crew of four hundred 
and twenty-seven men. Nearly all these were Ameri- 
cans. Many of them had been liberated from British 
prisons by the energies of Commodore Jones. He 
impressed upon both officers and crew his deter- ^ 



COMMODORE JONES AT COURT. 1 75 

mination that he should never shrink from an en- 
gagement with any English ship which did not 
mount more than fifty guns. 

The night of the 26th of December was dark, 
with a fresh, fair wind. The Alliance, in the mid- 
night gloom, proudly unfurled at her mast-head 
the Stars and Stripes. Every inch of canvas was 
spread to catch the breeze. Flying closely along the 
Flemish banks, he was so fortunate as to elude the 
observation of the fleets watching for his capture. 
Before the morning dawned he was far away upon 
the broad expanse of the German Ocean, where 
fleets might cruise for weeks and not meet each 
other. There had been a very severe gale just 
before the departure of the Alliance, which blew so 
fiercely upon the shore, that the English squadron 
had been compelled to put to sea for safety. Doubt- 
less to this event Commodore Jones was much in- 
' debted for his escape. 

This successful retreat of Commodore Jones 
from the overwhelming forces which surrounded him 
is regarded, by naval authorities, as one of the most 
successful of naval exploits. Keeping well to the 
windward of the enemy's fleet, he traversed the North 
Sea, saihng through the narrow Straits of Dover, in 
full view of the British fleet in the Downs ; passed 
the Isle of Wight, almost within hailing distance of 



176 PAUL JONES. 

the shore, though quite a fleet was at anchor at Spit- 
head ; and, though he saw two-decked cruising ships 
of the enemy before him and behind him and on 
each side of him, he eluded them all, safely emerged 
from the British Channel and continued his course 
down the western coast of France. This was a voy- 
age of not less than fifteen hundred miles. 

Sometime before leaving the Texel he had 
received a complimentary poetic epistle from a 
young lady at the Hague, who addressed him as 
King of the Sea. When fairly out upon the Ger- 
man Ocean, with leisure hours, he on the ist of 
January, 1780, went into his cabin and wrote a poetic 
reply. He was not a poet. But it is very doubt- 
ful whether Lord Nelson, under the circumstances, 
could have done as well. As a specimen of his skill 
in versification I will give the last stanza. 

" But since, alas ! the rage of war prevails, 

And cruel Britons desolate our land, 
For freedom still I spread my willing sails. 

My unsheathed sword my injured countiy shall command. 
Go on, bright maid ; the muses all attend 
Genius like thine, and wish to be its friend. 
Trust me, although conveyed through this poor shift. 
My New Year's thoughts are grateful for thy gift." 

Commodore Jones was very desirous of not going 
empty-handed into port. It was not enough for him 
merely to elude his enemies. He was resolved, if , 



COMMODORE JONES AT COURT. 1 77 

possible, to take some prizes. He therefore ran 
down the Bay of Biscay and westerly along the coast 
of Spain, several hundred miles, in a region where it 
was very certain that the British men-of-war would 
not be searching for him. 

When cruising off Cape Finisterre, the extreme 
northwesterly cape of Spain, he encountered a very 
severe storm. This led him to run for shelter into 
the Spanish port of Corunna, where there was a fine 
harbor. I may remark, in passing, that this Corunna 
subsequently became renowned in history. Southey 
writes : 

" Its filth is astonishing. Other towns attract 
the eye of the traveller. But Corunna takes his at- 
tention by the noseT 

This place became famous in the struggle 
between Spain and Napoleon I. To this point Sir 
John Moore was fleeing in his disastrous retreat 
before Napoleon, and near its walls he fell. The 
poet has immortalized the event in the sublime ode, 
upon his burial by moonlight. 

" Not a drum was heard, nor a funeral note, 
As his corpse to the ramparts we hurried ; 
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot. 
O'er the grave where our hero was buried." 

At Corunna Commodore Jones was very kindly 

received by the Spanish authorities. He remained 
8* 



1/8 TAUL JONES. 

in port twelve days, making sundry needful repairs. 
Upon the evening of his arrival he wrote to 
Lafayette : 

" I made my passage safe through the Channel 
in spite of all their cruising ships and squadrons ; and 
had the pleasure of looking at them in the Downs, 
and in passing in sight of the Isle of Wight. I 
steered this way in hopes of meeting some of their 
cruisers off Cape Finisterre, but am hitherto disap- 
pointed." 

On the 28th of January, 1780, he again set sail, 
and after the unsuccessful cruise of a fortnight, 
entered the harbor of L'Orient, in France, on the 
13th of February. This strongly fortified French 
port is seated at the head of the bay Port Louis, 
about three miles from the ocean. Here he learned 
that he was accused of cherishing a strong dislike for 
the French people. In reply to this rumor he wrote 
to the Marquis de Lafayette, under date of Febru- 
ary 1 8th, 1780. 

" M. Weibert has, I understand, taken great pains 
to promulgate that I do not love France. To come 
to the point, here follows my political profession. I 
am a citizen of the world, totally unfettered by the 
little mean distinctions of country or of climate, 
which diminish or set bounds to the benevolence of 
the heart. Impelled by principles of gratitude and ^ 



COMMODORE JONES AT COURT. 1 79 

philanthropy I drew my sword at the beginning of 
the American Revolution. And when France so 
nobly espoused that great cause, no individual felt 
the obligation with truer gratitude than myself. 
When the Court of France, soon after, invited me to 
remain for a time in Europe, I considered myself as 
highly honored by the application that was made to 
the American commissioners. Since that time I 
have been at every instant, and I still am, ready to 
do my utmost for the good of the common cause of 
France and America. 

" As an American officer, and as a man, I affec- 
tionately love and respect the character and nation 
of France, and hope the alhance with America may 
last forever. I owe the greatest obligation to the 
generous praise of the French nation on my past 
conduct, and shall be happy to merit future favor. I 
greatly love and esteem his most Christian Majesty 
as the great ally of America, the best of kings, and 
the amiable friend and protector of the rights of 
human nature. Therefore he has few of his own 
subjects who would bleed, in his present cause, with 
greater freedom than myself, and none who are more 
disinterested. At the same time I lament the calam- 
ities of war, and wish, above all things, for an hon- 
orable, happy, and lasting peace. 

*' My fortune is not augmented by the part I 



l80 PAUL JONES. 

have hitherto acted in the revolution, although I 
have had frequent opportunities of acquiring riches. 
And I pledged myself to the worthy part of man- 
kind, that my future conduct in the war shall not 
forfeit their good opinion. I am, with great and sin- 
cere affection, happy in your friendship." 

Though Commodore Jones had not captured 
any prize, he fortunately met an American ship, the 
Livingston, laden with tobacco, which he convoyed 
into L'Orient. 

The Alliance was needed to convey stores to the 
United Colonies. But she was in need of very 
thorough repairs before she could safely spread sail 
on so important a voyage. The seas were covered 
with British war vessels of double her number of 
guns. It was therefore essential that she should be 
prepared for a rapid flight. There were fifteen 
thousand stand of good arms to be sent, and one 
hundred and twenty large bales of cloth for the 
army, with other freight of great value. The loss of 
these would prove a great calamity. 

Commodore Jones felt that it would be madness 
to undertake to cross the ocean, with so valuable a 
cargo, without putting the ship in the best possible 
trim. But the French court, which had been at 
great expense in fitting out its own ships, declined 
furnishing funds from an exhausted treasury; and 



COMMODORE JONES AT COURT. l8l 

the American commissioners in Paris, representatives 
of the feeble colonies, had neither money nor credit. 
There is true pathos in the letter which Dr. Frank- 
lin wrote the commodore on this occasion. 

" As to refitting your ship," he wrote, " at the 
expense of this court, there is not the least proba- 
bility of obtaining it ; and therefore I cannot ask it. 
The whole expense will therefore fall upon me ; and 
I am ill provided to bear it, having so many unex- 
pected calls upon me from all quarters. I therefore 
beg you would have mercy on me. Put me to as lit- 
tle charge as possible, and take nothing you can 
possibly do without. I approve of your applying to 
Messrs. Gourlade and Moylan for what repairs you 
want, having an exceeding good opinion of those 
gentlemen. But let me repeat it, for God's sake be 
sparing, unless you mean to make me a bankrupt, or 
have your drafts dishonored, for want of money in 
my hands to pay them." 

To this appeal the commodore replied, '' I feel 
your reasons for urging frugality. And as I have 
not, hitherto, been among the extravagant servants 
of America, so you may depend upon it, my regard 
for you will make me particularly nice in my present 
situation." 

By the middle of April the Alliance, under the 
very energetic and skilful superintendence of Com- 



1 82 PAUL JONES. 

modore Jones, was ready for sea. Competent judges 
declared that it was one of the finest frigates to be 
found in France. Though it was manifestly for 
Commodore Jones's pecuniary interest to remain with 
his splendid ship in the region of rich prizes, where 
at any time, in a few hours, he could run into the 
fortified ports of France, yet, without a murmur, he 
undertook the more humble employment of convey- 
ing stores to America. 

There were four gentlemen in Paris, including 
one of the commissioners, Mr. Arthur Lee, who 
wished to take passage with him. Landais, when 
he fled from the Texel, left his trunks on board the 
Alliance. Doctor Franklin wrote to Commodore 
Jones: 

" Captain Landais has demanded of me an order 
to you, to deliver to him his trunks. I find him so 
exceedingly captious and critical, and so apt to mis- 
construe, as an intended injustice, every expression 
in a language which he does not immediately under- 
stand, that I am tired of writing anything for him 
or about him, and am determined to have nothing 
further to do with him." 

Innumerable difficulties had arisen about the ad- 
justment and distribution of the prizes. The sailors 
had not received their wages, and not even a dollar 
of their prize money. Many of them were in a state 



COMMODORE JONES AT COURT. 1 83 

of great destitution. Their chests of clothing had 
gone down in the Bon Homme Richard ; and after 
the long delay in the Texel they were almost in rags. 

Landais, having been commissioned by the Amer- 
ican Congress, demanded to be sent to this country 
for trial upon the charges brought against him. 
This request had been granted, and Dr. Franklin had 
furnished him with funds to pay his passage, in the 
Luzerne, an American merchant ship. There were 
many very serious charges tabled against him. In 
defence of the most severe accusation, that he had 
fired into the Bon Homme Richard, he presented the 
plea that the two ships were lashed together, and 
that he could not fire into the Serapis, without some 
of his shot being liable to strike the Richard. But 
the testimony given by Nathaniel Fanning seems 
conclusive, as it was corroborated by much other 
testimony. He was stationed in the main-top of 
the Richard, where he remained during the whole 
action. 

He testified that two hours after the engagement 
commenced, the Alliance came under the stern of 
the Richard, and discharged her whole broadside 
into the ship. She then came under the bow of the 
Richard, and discharged another volley of grape and 
round shot. The Alliance was within hail, and some 
of the officers of the Richard shouted, *' For God's 



1 84 PAUL JONES. 

sake don't fire into us. You have already killed 
several of our men." Still she fired a number of shot 
afterwards into the Richard. 

Another officer of the Richard testified that he 
was standing on the quarter-deck in the midst of 
the smoke and tumult of the battle, when they were 
struck by a raking fire, and two men fell dead at his 
side. He then heard several cry out, " The Alliance 
is manned with Englishmen, and is firing on us." 
The Alliance then passed by, and after a couple of 
hours came under their stern and discharged a full 
broadside into the Richard. 

** It is my sincere opinion," this witness testified, 
" that the motive of Captain Landais must have 
been to kill Captain Jones, and distress the Richard, 
so as to cause her to strike to the Serapis, that he 
might be able to take both vessels and honor him- 
self with the laurels of that day." 

Several pages of similar testimony might be given. 
All alike testified that the Alliance never passed on 
the off-side of the Serapis ; but ever kept the Ri- 
chard between the Serapis and her guns. Thus, if 
any of her shot struck the Serapis, they must have 
first passed through the Richard. 

Commodore Jones, sympathizing with his men in 
their utter destitution, and the apparent wrongs 
under which they were suffering, felt constrained to 



COMMODORE JONES AT COURT. 1 85 

go personally to Paris to plead with the court at 
Versailles, in their behalf. Months had passed dur- 
ing which they had received no wages. They had 
captured many valuable prizes, but no money had 
come back to them. Two of these, it will be remem- 
bered, which were valued at two hundred thousand 
dollars. Captain Landais, contrary to the orders of 
Commodore Jones, had sent to Norway. The Nor- 
wegian Government, alarmed by the menaces of 
England, surrendered them both to the British am- 
bassador, on the ground that Captain Jones had 
not been commissioned by any government which 
Norway had recognized. 

The other prizes, which were in French ports, 
were to be sold at auction. But in consequence of 
some technicaHties of the laws, whose delays are 
proverbial, the ships had not yet been sold. The 
commissioners at Paris, in their poverty, sent to the 
crew of the Alliance a sum of money which amount- 
ed to about ten dollars apiece. This did but excite 
their indignation and derison. Some, in their cha- 
grin, chucked the coin into the water. 

Commodore Jones was a handsome man about 
thirty-six years af age, of fine figure, fair complexion, 
pleasant features, and courtly bearing. He was a 
man of literary tastes and studious habits. He 
wrote poetry, and spoke the French language with 



1 86 PAUL JONES. 

considerable fluency. These personal and mental 
accomplishments, added to his chivalric exploits, the 
fame of which had filled the world, rendered him an 
object of remarkable and universal attention in the 
Court of Versailles. 

The king was his personal friend, and made him 
a present of an exquisitely wrought gold-headed 
sword. The king and the court were united in lav- 
ishing honor upon him. He Avas invited to dine 
with the most illustrious members of that aristo- 
cratic court. Wherever he appeared, the eyes of 
the crowd followed his steps. These extraordinary 
attentions, which were sufficient to turn the head of 
any ordinary man, do not appear to have diminished, 
in the slightest degree, Paul Jones's zeal in the pub- 
lic service. The court was then greatly embarrassed 
for money. The measureless extravagances of 
Louis XIV. and Louis XV. had plunged the nation 
into hopeless bankruptcy, and hourly, matters were 
ripening for all the horrors of the French Revolu- 
tion. 

Thus the court, though lavish in compliments, 
had but little money to confer in charity upon the 
struggling colonies. Commodore Jones, with unu- 
sual literary culture for a man in his situation, moved 
through all these scenes with the winning manners 
of a well-bred man. He felt the importance of con- ^ 



COMMODORE JONES AT COURT. 18/ 

ciliating all possible influences in favor of the im- 
perilled country of his adoption. 

In the court of Versailles, the ladies often con- 
trolled the most important affairs of state. The 
guilty favorites of the two preceding kings had in 
a great measure guided the destinies of Europe. 
Maria Antoinette was far more the sovereign than 
her weak but well-meaning spouse. 

Among the ladies of highest rank, by whom he 
was particularly honored, were a daughter of Louis 
XV., and the Countess of Lavendahl. 

An English lady at Versailles writes to a friend, 
** The famous Paul Jones dines and sups here often. 
He is a smart man of thirty-six, speaks but little 
French, appears to be an extraordinary genius, a 
poet as well as a hero. He is greatly admired here, 
especially by the ladies, who are wild for love of 
him. But he adores the Countess of Lavendahl, who 
has honored him with every mark of poHteness and 
distinction. A few days ago he wrote some verses 
extempore, of which I send you a copy." The fol- 
lowing are the verses. 

" Insulted freedom bled : I felt her cause. 
And drew my sword to vindicate her laws 
From principle, and not from vain applause 
I've done my best ; self-interest apart 
And self-reproach a stranger to my heart. 
My zeal still prompts, ambitious to pursue 
The foe, ye fair, of liberty and you ; 



l88 PAUL JONES. 

Grateful for praise, spontaneous and unbought, 
A generous people's love not meanly sought ; 
To merit this, and bend the knee to beauty 
Shall be my earliest and my latest duty." 

In a subsequent letter the same lady wrote, 
" Since my last, Paul Jones drank tea and supped 
here. If I am in love with him, for love I may die. 
I have as many rivals as there are ladies. The 
most formidable is Lady Lavendahl, who possesses 
all his heart. This lady is of high rank and virtue, 
very sensible, good-natured and affable. Besides 
this, she is possessed of youth, beauty, wit, and every 
other female accomplishment." 

Commodore Jones had but just left L'Orient, on 
the all-important mission to Versailles, when Lan- 
dais went to that port to get his trunks and to take 
passage in the Luzerne for America. Finding the 
commodore absent, and the crew almost in a state 
of mutiny, he resolved to make an attempt to re- 
cover the command of the Alliance. 

He represented that Jones, leaving the crew in 
their destitution, had gone to Paris to enjoy the 
feasting and adulation which were lavished upon 
him there. He insinuated that they had been rob- 
bed of their prize money, and that Jones and his 
confederates had appropriated it to their own luxu- 
rious indulgence. He also represented that Jones 
was regarded by the European courts, and would be ^ 



COMMODORE JONES AT COURT. 1 89 

regarded by Congress, simply as a privateersman, 
sailing on his own account, and that consequently 
his seamen, when they arrived in America, would be 
deserted by him, and that they could expect no 
wages from Congress. 

This was very artful malice. It shows that Lan- 
dais possessed very considerable powers of wicked 
intrigue. He even succeeded in winning over to his 
side Commissioner Lee, who was to return in the 
Alliance, and who was not on very good terms with 
the other members of the Congressional delegation. 
Captain Landais obtained from Commissioner Lee 
an opinion containing the following statement, under 
date of May, 13th : 

"From documents exhibited to me, it is clear, 
beyond a possibility of doubt, that Captain Lan- 
dais commands the Alliance, under the full, direct, 
and express order of Congress ; and that no such 
authority appears to dismiss him from the command. 
In this situation Captain Landais must answer at 
his peril for the frigate intrusted to him, till he re- 
ceives an order of Congress to deliver her to another. 
If such order exists, those who have it do infinite 
wrong to the service, in not producing it. If there 
is no such order, the subjects of the United States, 
who attempt to divest Captain Landais of the com- 
mand he holds from the sovereign power, or to dis- 



190 PAUL JONES. 

turb him by violence in the exercise of it, commit a 
high crime against the laws and sovereignity of the 
United States, and subject themselves to a propor- 
tionable punishment." 

Mr. Lee knew full well the views of Dr. Franklin 
upon this all-important subject. Rather defiantly 
he wrote : " This is my opinion, founded on a cool 
and candid consideration of the authorities on both 
sides. You are at liberty to show this letter to whom 
you please, or to send it to Dr. Franklin." 

Landais had abandoned the Alliance at the Texel, 
and had run away, to avoid arrest for challenging 
his superior officer to a duel. For seven months he 
had not stepped on board the ship, during which time 
Jones had been in undisputed command. He was 
now virtually under arrest, to be sent back to Amer- 
ica to be tried for one of the most atrocious crimes 
which could be committed. Dr. Franklin, learning 
that Landais was still at L'Orient, and that he had 
written to someone, " I am waiting for Franklin's 
orders to take command of the Alliance," addressed 
a letter to him, expressing his astonishment that he 
was not long before on his way to America for trial, 
for which voyage Franklin had provided him with 
funds. And he added, " I waive any further dis- 
pute with you. But I charge you not to meddle 
with the command of the AUiance, or to create any ^ 



COMMODORE JONES AT COURT. I9I 

disturbance on board her, as you will answer to the 
contrary at your peril." 

Landais succeeded in having a paper drawn up, 
and signed by one hundred and sixteen of the more 
than four hundred sailors of the Alliance, which was 
addressed to Dr. Franklin, and which stated that 
they would not raise the anchor, to leave L'Orient, 
until they had received six months' wages, the utmost 
farthing of the prize money due, including the ships 
sent to Norway, and imtil their legal captain, Pierre 
Landais, was restored to them. 

Dr. Franklin immediately went to the court at 
Versailles, which is but twelve miles from Paris, and 
entered a complaint against Landais as a fomenter of 
mutiny. The proof of Landais' guilt was manifest, 
and orders were immediately sent for his arrest and 
imprisonment. In the meantime Jones had obtained, 
from the court, orders for a fine copper-bottomed 
French ship, the Ariel, to sail to America in com- 
pany with the Alliance. He had made all his 
arrangements to spread his sails a week after his 
return to L'Orient from Paris. 

Franklin wrote to the mutinous crew of the Alli- 
ance, expressing his surprise that they could have 
any confidence in one who had behaved as they all 
knew Landais to have done. He closed his letter 
with the following conciliatory words : 



192 PAUL JONES. 

" For myself, I believe you to be brave men and 
lovers of your country and its glorious cause. And 
I am persuaded that you have only been ill advised 
and misled by the artful and malicious representa- 
tions of some persons I guess at.^^ Take in good 
part this friendly counsel from an old man, who is 
your friend. Go home peaceably with your ship. 
Do your duty faithfully and cheerfully. Behave 
respectfully to your commander, and I am persuaded 
he will do the same to you. Thus you will not 
only be happier in your voyage, but will recommend 
yourselves to the future favors of Congress and your 
country." 

To Commodore Jones he wrote. ** You are liable 
to have great trouble. I wish you well through it. 
You have shown your abilities in fighting. You have 
now the opportunity of showing the other necessary 
part in the character of a great chief — your abilities 
in policy." 

* He doubtless refers to Commissioner Lee. 



^ 



CHAPTER IX. 

The Mutiny of Landais. 

The Visit of Jones to Versailles. — Intrigues of Landais. — The Alliance 
Wrested from Jones. — Complicity of Arthur Lee. — Magnanimity 
of Jones. — Strong Support of Dr. Johnson. — Honors Conferred 
upon Jones. — Strange Career of Landais. — His Life in America, 
and Death. — Continued Labors and Embarrassments of Jones. — 
His Correspondence. 

Jones immediately, upon his arrival at L'Orient, 
made preparation.s for his departure, with the two 
armed ships, the Alliance and the Ariel, which were 
to convoy several American vessels, with cargoes 
amounting to four hundred thousand dollars in value. 
Having heard that his authority had been called in 
question, he, on the morning of the 13th of June, 
mustered the crew of the Alliance on the quarter- 
deck, and caused his commission from Congress to 
be read to them, together with the order from Dr. 
Franklin for him to take command of the Alliance, 
and a subsequent order to take her to Philadelphia. 
When he asked if any of the crew had any complaint 
to make against him, not one stepped forward. 
All seemed to be satisfied. 
9 



194 PAUL JONES. 

Soon after, he went ashore to confer with the 
French authorities in reference to the armament of the 
Ariel. Landais was on the watch. As soon as Com- 
modore Jones stepped ashore, Captain Landais sent 
an order to one of his confederates, by the name of 
Degges, who had been first Heutenant of the Alhance, 
to take command of the ship until he should receive 
further orders. Degges mustered the crew ; read the 
order to them, and also the very decided opinion of 
Commissioner Lee, that Landais was the legal com- 
mander of the Alliance. The sailors were bewil- 
dered. They were in danger of losing all their 
prize-money, and their wages for several months of 
arduous and perilous labor. Landais had made 
them golden promises. The majority decided for 
Landais. At that opportune moment, he came over 
the side of the ship and took the command. 

Lieutenant Dale and the other officers of the 
Richard, who had come from the Serapis on board 
the Alliance, and who remained faithful to Commo- 
dore Jones, were thrust into boats and sent ashore. 
It is hardly just to call this a mutiny, on the part 
of the sailors, for they were reasonably in doubt as 
to who was the commander they were legally bound 
to obey. 

Commodore Jones, hearing the cheers of the 
crew of the Alliance, hastened on board. He found 



THE MUTINY OF LANDAIS. I95 

Landais parading up and down the deck, flourishing 
his commission in his hand, and haranguing the 
crew in broken Enghsh. Jones was also unceremo- 
niously sent ashore with his officers. He hastened 
to Versailles, to inform the governmental authorities 
there of what had transpired. On the 17th of June, 
Dr. FrankHn wrote to Commodore Jones. He had 
probably not then been fully informed of the very 
serious character of the events which had taken 
place. In this letter he said : 

^' Having been informed by several gentlemen of 
and from L'Orient, that it is there generally under- 
stood the mutiny on board your ship has been 
advised or promoted by the Honorable Arthur Lee, 
whom I had ordered you to receive as a passenger, 
I hereby withdraw that order so far as to leave the 
execution to your direction. If from the circum- 
stances which have come to your knowledge it 
should appear to you that the peace and good gov- 
ernment of the ship, during the voyage, may be 
endangered by his presence, you may decline tak- 
ing that gentleman ; which I apprehend need not 
obstruct his return to America, as there are several 
ships going under your convoy, and no doubt many 
of their passengers may be prevailed to change 
places. But if you judge these suspicions ground- 
less you will comply with the order aforesaid." 



196 PAUL JONES. 

Honorable Arthur Lee was a disappointed and 
angry man. He had quarrelled with his associates, 
and was returning to America in very ill humor. 
The Alliance was crowded with freight of the utmost 
importance to the struggling colonies. Mr. Lee 
insisted upon large accommodation for himself and 
family, for room for his carriage, and for a vast 
amount of baggage. This would have demanded 
space which was needed for transportation of the 
soldiers' clothing. Commodore Jones, with his soul 
absorbed in devotion to the public interests, and 
who scarcely allowed chest-room for himself, objected 
to the surrender of so much space to the commis- 
sioner and his family. This grievously offended Mr. 
Lee, and added to his discontent. Commodore 
Jones gives the following account of the difficulty : 

" I am convinced that Mr. Lee has acted in this 
manner merely because I would not become the 
enemy of the venerable, the wise, the good FrankHn, 
whose heart as well as head does, and will always do, 
honor to human nature. I know the great and 
good, in this kingdom, better perhaps than any 
other American who has appeared in Europe since 
the treaty of aUiance. And if my testimony could 
add anything to Franklin's reputation, I could wit- 
ness the universal veneration and esteem with which 
his name inspires all ranks, not only at Versailles 



THE MUTINY OF LANDAIS. I97 

and all over this kingdom, but also in Spain and 
Holland. And I can add from the testimony of -the 
first characters of other nations that, with them, envy 
itself is dumb when the name of Franklin is but 
mentioned." 

Upon the day of the mutiny which put Landais 
in possession of the Alliance, Paul Jones dined with 
the French admiral. He was keenly sensible of the 
disgrace to our nation should two commissioned 
officers, in a foreign port, each perhaps leading two 
hundred men, have a bloody battle on the deck of 
one of our war-ships. Such an untoward event 
would have disgraced our country, and the holy 
cause in which we were engaged, in the eyes of all 
Europe. And it would but add to our reproach 
that, in this deplorable conflict, the commissioners, 
sent to Paris to win France to our cause, were 
divided, Mr. Lee being on the one side and Dr. 
Franklin on the other. 

The Alliance was in a French port, and conse- 
quently under French law. When the commission- 
ers were in antagonistic opinion whether Jones or 
Landais was the legal commander of the ship, the 
sailors might well be excused for being also hon- 
estly divided in their views. Commodore Jones, a 
humane man, a lover of peace and justice, could not 
bear the thought of strewing the deck of the ship 



198 PAUL JONES. 

With the bloody corpses of these ignorant men. He 
preferred to submit the question to the arbitration 
of the laws, rather than to brutal violence. 

Jones' despatched an express to the court, at 
Versailles, and immediately followed it. Upon his 
arrival he found, that through the intervention of 
Dr. Franklin, orders had already been issued for the 
detention of the Alliance, and the arrest of Landais. 
Journeying was comparatively slow in those days. 
After the absence of a week Commodore Jones 
returned. He found that, during the night preced- 
ing his arrival, Landais had warped the ship from the 
inner to the outer harbor, which was called Port 
Louis. There was still a narrow entrance through 
which the ship must pass before it could be out at 
sea. A battery commanded that passage. A boat 
was sent on board, with an officer, to arrest Landais 
in the king's name, and to announce that the Alli- 
ance would be sunk should she attempt to leave the 
port. Captain Landais, standing beneath the Stars 
and Stripes, and surrounded by his men, refused to 
surrender himself. 

The Alliance had been placed by Congress at 
the disposal of Dr. Franklin. He, as the representa- 
tive of the Government, was to order all her move- 
ments in Europe. This both Lee and Landais 
knew perfectly well. The French officer now pre- 



THE MUTINY OF LANDAIS. 1 99 

sented to Landais the positive orders of Dr. Frank- 
lin to Landais, his officers and his men, to surrender 
the ship to the command of Commodore Jones. 

The commodore now had the ship completely in 
his power. One or two broadsides from the battery 
would sink her and all her crew in the bottom of 
the bay. French soldiers were accustomed to obey 
command. The guns were loaded. The gunners 
stood ready with lighted matches. At one word of 
command a storm of balls would pierce the ship, and 
all France would receive another impressive lesson 
of the peril involved in disobeying the orders of the 
king. And yet the madman Landais, reckless of all 
consequences, was firm in his insubordination. 

The Alliance was by far the finest ship in the 
feeble navy of the colonies. It was freighted with 
stores of inestimable value to our thinly clad, hun- 
gry, ill-provided soldiers, struggling against the most 
formidable military power then upon the globe. A 
large minority, probably a majority of the sailors 
were in favor of Commodore Jones. Those who 
adhered to Landais were assured by Commissioner 
Lee that they were surely in the right, and that if 
they abandoned Landais they would be exposed to 
be hung for mutiny against their lawful com- 
mander. 

All the sailors felt deeply wronged. They could 



200 PAUF^JONES. 

not understand why they received neither wages 
nor prize-money. They could not know but that 
the mahgnant and artful representations of Landais 
Avere true ; that Jones, with his confederate aristo- 
crats of the court, was squandering, in luxurious dis- 
sipation, their hard earnings. Under these circum- 
stance it would have been cruel to consign these poor 
men to destruction, and our country to so great a 
loss. Commodore Jones, forgetting his resentment, 
acted the part of a magnanimous man, for which 
he merits the highest commendation. 

He hastened to the quarters of M. Thevenard, the 
commandant of the port, and by his personal inter- 
position, prevented him from opening fire upon the 
Alliance. He wrote to Dr. Franklin : 

^' Thevenard had received orders to fire on the 
Alliance and sink her to the bottom, if they at- 
tempted to approach and pass the barrier that had 
been made across the entrance to the port. Had I 
even remained silent an hour the dreadful work 
would have been done. Your humanity will, I know, 
justify the part I acted, in preventing a scene that 
would have rendered me miserable for the rest of 
my life. Yesterday the within letter was brought 
me from Mr. Lee. He has pulled off the mask, and 
I am convinced is not a Httle disappointed that his 



THE MUTINY OF LANDAIS. 20I 

operations have produced no bloodshed between the 
subjects of France and America. Poor man ! " 

The commandant of the port called all his officers 
together, and they signed a paper, minutely stating 
the preparations they had made to render the depar- 
ture of the Alliance impossible, and their great 
admiration of the magnanimity of Commodore Jones 
in causing their operations to be suspended. 

Landais, unopposed, warped his ship through the 
mouth of the harbor and cast anchor in the roadstead 
of Groix. We must now take leave of Landais, with 
but a brief record of his subsequent career. 

Pierre Landais was the youngest son of one of 
the proudest and, in rank, one of the most illustrious 
families in Normandy. Their ancestral estates had 
gradually passed away, and the family had become 
impoverished, but not the less proud. Pierre en- 
tered the Naval School, and was thoroughly instruct- 
ed in the theory both of building and navigating a 
ship. He, however, found it difficult to get a com- 
mission so as to put his knowledge into practice. 
He had neither money, nor interest at court, with 
which to purchase court favor. 

He was thus kept a mere midshipman until he 
was thirty-two years of age. Then for many years 
he remained in the humble situation of a sub-lieu- 
tenant. He was serving in this capacity, greatly 
9* 



202 PAl^ JONES. 

discontented with his lot, when the war broke out 
between England and her American colonies. Lan- 
dais then came to this country in command of a 
French merchant-ship laden with public stores. He 
was a man of much address and of boundless assu- 
rance. According to his representation he enjoyed 
the rank of captain in the royal navy ; had com- 
manded a ship of the line ; had been chief officer of 
the naval depot at the port of Brest, and could have 
commanded any advancement he desired in his own 
country. 

But he said that his love for freedom was such, 
and such his admiration of the heroism of the Amer- 
icans in drawing the sword in defence of popular 
rights, against such a gigantic power as that of 
Great Britain, that he had declined receiving the 
Cross of St. Louis, and had abjured the Roman 
Catholic religion, the rehgion of his forefathers, that 
he might, with all his energies, enter into the service 
of America. 

Believing all this, and wishing, as we have said, to 
compliment France, Congress placed its finest frigate 
in the hands of Landais. The result, until the time 
when the Alliance left L'Orient, the reader knows. 

The Alliance, with Mr. Lee on board, at length 
reached Philadelphia. The conduct of Landais, 
whose title to command his own men doubted, was so 



THE MUTINY OF LANDAIS. 203 

insane that the officers, passengers and crew all 
became incensed. Mr. Lee was prominent in this 
movement The ship was committed to the officer 
next in rank. A court of inquiry was held, in which 
Mr. Lee testified strongly against the captain as 
insane. The charge was so fully sustained that he 
was dismissed from the service of the United States. 
It was not deemed expedient to waste time by 
prosecuting the more serious charges against him. 
He was consequently consigned to insignificance. 
Thus thrown out of service, Landais took up his 
residence in the city of New York. Destitute of 
funds, he was miserably poor, living, one can hardly 
tell how, upon an income of but two hundred dollars 
a year. Still he retained all his ancient pride, main- 
taining the air of a gentleman, and refusing any 
assistance which could indicate that he was in 
want. 

He contrived, at every session of Congress, 
whether at Philadelphia or Washington, to make his 
appearance, and to urge a memorial expressive of the 
injustice which he thought had been done him, and 
demanding restitution to his rank and the arrears of 
pay. It is said that at one time he was reduced 
almost to nothing, when an unexpected division of 
some prize-money gave him an annuity of one hun- 
dred and five dollars. With true French hilarity he 



204 PAU^ONES. 

said, " I have now two dollars a week on which to 
live, and an odd dollar for charity at the end of the 
year." 

To the last he kept up the exterior and the 
courtly bearing of a gentleman. All that was 
visible of his linen was ever spotlessly clean. His 
thread-bare coat was brushed with the utmost neat- 
ness. On ceremonious occasions, or when making a 
call, he wore conspicuously a pair of paste knee- 
buckles, yellow silk stockings, carefully preserved, 
though much faded, and which were adorned with 
what were then called red clocks. 

Claiming to be an officer in the United States 
Navy, unjustly deprived of command, he ever wore 
upon his hat the American cockade. On the Fourth 
of July, and on the day which commemorated the 
evacuation of the city of New York by the British 
troops, Landais, who had assumed the title of 
admiral, invariably dressed himself in his old Conti- 
nental uniform. The large brass buttons, though 
they had lost their brilliance, attracted attention. 
The long skirts of his blue coat reached almost to 
his heels, enveloping his thin, shrivelled form. The 
sleeves seemed to have shrunken, for they scarcely 
came to his wrists. He thus paraded the streets, 
with all the airs of a nobleman of the ancient 
regime. 



THE MUTINY OF LANDAIS. 20$ 

His Spirit of independence was such that he 
refused all presents, even the most trifling. A gen- 
tleman, on one occasion, sent him a dozen bottles 
of Newark cider. He returned them because it was 
not in his power to reciprocate. 

He became, with advancing years, very irritable 
in temper. In one of the debates in Congress in 
reference to his claims, a member spoke, as he 
thought, disrespectfully of him. He dressed him- 
self in his uniform, belted a small sword at his side, 
and repairing to the gallery of the House, announced 
to all the acquaintances he met, that he was pre- 
pared to fight a duel with any gentleman who might 
give him occasion to do so. " If there is any bad 
blood in Congress," said he, "I am prepared to draw 
it." He always affirmed that he, and not Jones, 
captured the Serapis. The ship, he said, was com- 
pelled to surrender because he raked her with the 
guns of the Alliance. 

Thus this strange man lived for forty years, until 
he had attained the age of eighty-seven. He died, 
or, to use his own language, disappeared from this 
life, in the summer of 1818. As he was buried in the 
church-yard of St. Patrick's Cathedral it is probable 
that he had returned to the Roman CathoHc faith. 
Some unknown friend raised a plain marble slab 



206 PAt^ JONES. 

over his remains with the inscription, beneath a 
cross : 

A la Memoire 

de 

Pierre de Landais, 

Ancien Contre-Amiral 

au service 

Des Etats-Unis. 

Qui Disparut. 

Juin 1818. 
Age, 87 years. 

Let us now return to Paul Jones. There were five 
hundred tons of public stores still at L'Orient to be 
shipped to the United States. The Ariel, which was 
in port preparing to sail, could afford additional room 
for but about one hundred tons. There were thus 
four hundred tons to be provided for. The Serapis, 
which Paul Jones had so heroically captured, was one 
of the finest and most strongly built war-ships in the 
British navy. The king had just purchased the prize 
for a sum amounting to about forty thousand dollars. 
As France was certainly indebted to an American 
commodore for his valuable prize, and as France 
was in alliance with America, and as the cause of the 
two countries was, in some respects, a common 
cause, France wishing to resist the intolerable tyr- 
anny of England on the seas, Jones made the very 
reasonable suggestion to Dr. Franklin, that he should 
obtain the loan of the Serapis, to accompany the 



THE MUTINY OF LANDAIS. 20/ 

Ariel in conveying these stores across the Atlantic. 
Upon their arrival in America, the two ships, as he 
thought, might inflict very serious damage on the 
common enemy. Franklin, deserted by his col- 
league Lee, mortified by the flight of Landais with 
the Alliance, and embarrassed for want of money, 
was in a state of great perplexity. Through irregu- 
larity of the mails he had not received Commodore 
Jones's letter of the 2ist of June, giving him the par- 
ticulars of the departure of the AUiance. He had, 
however, received his letter of the 27th, proposing 
the loan of the Serapis. Philosopher as he was, he 
could not conceal the perplexities which annoyed 
him. He wrote : 

*' I only knew, by other means, that the Alliance 
is gone out of the port ; and that you are not hkely 
to recover, and have relinquished the command of 
her. So that affair is over. And now the business 
is, to get the goods out as well as we can. I am per- 
fectly bewildered with the different schemes that 
have been proposed to me for this purpose. Mr. 
Williams was for purchasing ships. I told him I had 
not the money ; but he still urges it. You and Mr. 
Ross proposed borrowing the Ariel. I joined in the 
application for that ship. We obtained her. She 
was to convey all that the Alliance could not take. 

" Now you find her insufflcient. An additional 



208 PAUL JONES. 

ship has already been asked and could not be ob- 
tained. I think therefore that it will be best that 
you take as much into the Ariel as you can, and de- 
part with it. For the rest I must apply to the gov- 
ernment to contrive some means of transporting it 
in their own ships. This is my present opinion. 
When I have once got rid of this business, no con- 
sideration shall tempt me to meddle again with such 
matters, as I never understood them." 

The stores which were ready to be transported 
to America, amounted in value to about four hun- 
dred thousand dollars. It was needful that immedi- 
ate and vigorous measures should be taken to send 
them on their way. Commodore Jones, on the 27th 
of June, wrote, as in duty bound, to the Honorable 
Robert Morris, giving him a very unimpassioned and 
truthful account of the untoward events which had 
occurred. He closed this admirable letter with the 
following words : 

" I cannot see where all this will end. But surely 
it must fall dreadfully on the heads of those who 
have stirred up this causeless mutiny. For my 
own part I shall make no other remark than that I 
have never directly or indirectly sought after the 
command of the Alliance. But after having, in 
obedience to orders, commanded her for seven 
months, and after 'Mr. Lee had made a written 



THE MUTINY OF LANDAIS. 209 

application to me, as commander of that ship, for a 
passage to America, I am at a loss what name to 
give to Mr. Lee's late conduct and duplicity in stir- 
ring up a mutiny in favor of a man who was first 
sent to America, contrary to Mr. Lee's opinion, by 
Mr. Deane, and who is actually under arrest by 
order of his sovereign. 

" What gives me the greatest pain is, that after I 
had obtained from government the means of tran- 
sporting to America, under good protection, the 
arms and clothing I have already mentioned, Mr. 
Lee should have found means to defeat my inten- 
tions. You will bear me witness, my worthy friend, 
that I never asked a favor for myself from Congress. 
You have seen all my letters, and know that I never 
sought any indirect influence ; though my ambition 
to act an eminent and useful part in this glorious 
revolution is unbounded. 

" I pledge myself to you and to America that 
my zeal receives new ardor from the opposition it 
meets with ; and I live but to overcome them, and 
to prove myself no mock patriot, but a true friend to 
the rights of human nature upon principles of dis- 
interested philanthropy. Of this I have given some 
proofs, and I will give more. Let not, therefore, 
the virtuous Senate of America he misled by the 
insinuations of fallen ambition. Should anything 



210 I^L JONES. 

be said to my disadvantage, all I ask is a suspension 
of judgment until I can appear before Congress to 
answer for myself." 

The next day after Commodore Jones had written 
this letter, on the 28th of June, a letter was de- 
spatched to him, from Monsieur de Sartines, the 
French minister, dated at Versailles. He wrote : 

" The king, sir, has already made known his 
satisfaction with the zeal and valor which you have 
displayed in Europe, in support of the common 
cause of the United States of America and his 
majesty ; and he has also informed you of the dis- 
tinguished proofs he is disposed to give you thereof. 
Persuaded that the United States will give their 
consent that you should receive the Cross of the 
Order of Military Merit, I send you, in the accom- 
panying packet addressed to M. de Luzerne, the one 
designed for you. You will be pleased to deliver 
him this packet, and he will see that the honor is 
conferred by a knight of the order agreeably to his 
majesty's orders." 

Before the Alliance sailed, the trunks of Commo- 
dore Jones which were on board that ship were broken 
open, robbed of their most valuable contents, and 
sent on shore. Those who openly adhered to Jones, 
refusing to obey Landais, were confined and carried 
away in irons. Almost inumerable obstacles arose 



THE MUTINY OF LANDAIS. 211 

to delay the sailing of the Ariel and the other vessels 
needed to transport the stores. Never did a man 
consecrate himself more entirely to the promotion 
of the public interests, to the neglect of all selfish 
considerations, than did Paul Jones during the 
months of June and July. A detailed account of 
his difficulties and disappointments would but weary' 
the reader. His soul was almost consumed with the 
desire to strike the haughty enemy blows which he 
would feel. He was willing to go back to America, 
animated by the hope that the government, hearing 
of what he had already achieved, would place such a 
force at his command as to enable him to do some- 
thing effectual toward the emancipation of America 
from British thraldom. On the 2d of August, just 
before he was ready to sail, he wrote to the Count 
of Vergennes. After expressing his gratitude for the 
favors he had received from the French court, and 
his intense desire for active employment, he added : 
" It is absolutely necessary, my lord, to destroy 
the foreign commerce of the English, especially their 
trade to the Baltic, from whence they draw all the 
supplies for their marine. It is equally necessary to 
alarm their coasts, not only in the colonies abroad, 
but even in their islands at home. These things 
would distress and distract the enemy much more 
than many battles between fleets of equal force. 



212 PAUL JONES. 

'' England has carried on the war against America 
in a far more barbarous form than she durst have 
adopted against any power of Europe. America 
has the right to retahate ; and, by our having the 
same language and customs with the enemy we are 
in a situation to surprise their coast and take such 
advantage of their unguarded situation, under the 
flag of America, as can never be done under the flag 
of France. This is not theory, for I have proved it 
by my experience. And if I have opportunity I will 
yet prove it more fully." 

Still there were the most annoying delays. Noth- 
ing in this world can be more difficult than to fit 
out a military expedition without money and with- 
out credit. The Ariel sailed out of the harbor and 
cast anchor in the road of Groix. Commodore Jones 
received during this time many flattering letters from 
admiring ladies of the French court. But his en- 
gagements were so pressing that he found but little 
time to reply to them. His instinctive sense of 
courtesy was such that this apparent neglect some- 
times quite seriously annoyed him. To one lady he 
wrote : 

'* When one is conscious of having been in fault, 
I beHeve it is the best way to confess it and to prom- 
ise amendment. This being my case in respect to 
you, madam, I am too honest to attempt to excuse 



THE MUTINY OF LANDAIS. 21 3 

myself; and therefore cast myself at your feet and 
beg your forgiveness, on condition that I behave 
better hereafter. For shame, Paul Jones ! How- 
could you let the fairest lady in the world, after writ- 
ing you two letters, wait so long for an answer. 
Are you so much devoted to war as to neglect wit 
and beauty? I make myself a thousand such 
reproaches, and believe I punish myself as severely 
as you would do, madam, were you present here." 

Again he wrote to a noble lady, Madame L'Or- 
moy : " My particular thanks are due you, madam, 
for the personal proofs I have received of your esteem 
and friendship, and for the happiness you procured 
me in the society of the charming countess and 
other ladies and gentlemen of your circle. But I 
have a favor to ask of you, madam, which I hope 
you will grant me. You tell me, in your letter, that 
the inkstand I had the honor to present you as a 
small token of my esteem, shall be reserved for the 
purpose of writing what concerns me. Now I wish 
you to see my idea in a more expanded light, and 
would have you make use of that inkstand to instruct 
mankind, and support the dignity and rights of 
human nature.' 



CHAPTER X. 

The Return to America, 

Fitting the Ariel. — Painful Delays. — The Sailing. — Terrible Tem- 
pest. — The Disabled Ship. — Puts back to L'Orient. — The Sec- 
ond Departure. — Meets the Triumph. — Bloody Naval Battle. — 
Perfidious Escape of the Triumph. — The Ariel Reaches America. 
— Honors Lavished upon Jones. — Appointed to Build and 
Command the America. — Great Skill Displayed. — The Ship 
given to France. — The Launch. 

Tardily the French government had ordered 
the Ariel to be fully armed and equipped. Com- 
modore Jones crowded the ship to its utmost pos- 
sible capacity. Such a quanity of powder, arms, and 
other stores were taken on board, that he had room 
for provisions for only nine weeks. The commodore 
had hoped to have left port at an earlier period, and 
at a more favorable season of the year. He was 
not able to weigh anchor and to spread his sails, for 
his adventurous voyage, until the 8th of October. 
He then sailed, with a fair wind and with promise 
of pleasant weather. 

But the very next night a terrible tempest arose. 
In the midst of midnight darkness, with howling 



THE RETURN TO AMERICA. 21 5 

winds and dashing waves, the Ariel barely escaped 
being wrecked on the rocks of Pen marque, a ledge 
which was the terror of all seamen, between L'Orient 
and Brest. The gale was so severe that the lower 
yard-arms were frequently plunged into the water. 
The peril was so great that it was necessary to cut 
away the fore-mast. This seemed in some degree to 
relieve the ship from the terrible strain, so that her 
head was brought to the wind. But in the terrible 
plungings of the heavily laden ship over the billows, 
the main-mast had got out of the step, and reeled to 
and fro in the most threatening manner. The dan- 
ger was imminent that the mast would either break 
off below the gun-deck, or that it would crush its 
way through the bottom of the ship. Commodore 
Jones gave orders for the main-mast to be cut away. 
But before this could be done the chain plates parted, 
and the main-mast, breaking off at the gun-deck, fell 
with a terrible crash, carrying with it the mizzen- 
mast, and the quarter-gallery. In that deplorable 
situation, the Ariel, rolling like a log upon the tem- 
pest-lashed sea, by rare good luck floated in midnight 
darkness, to the windward of the ledge generally 
deemed the most dangerous in the world. 

For two days and three nights this autumnal 
storm raged, covering the shore with wrecks, and 
with the bodies of the drowned. Even in the 



2l6 PA^L JONES. 

port of L'Orlent many ships were torn from their 
anchorage, and were dashed on the shore. Probably 
nothing saved the Ariel but the loss of her masts. 
Had they remained standing, to receive the force of 
the gale, no anchor could have held her from being 
thrown upon the rocks. Jury-masts were rigged, 
and the shattered Ariel, after the gale, was taken 
back to L'Orient. On the i6th, he wrote to Lady 
D'Ormoy, in reply to a letter from her. In this 
communication, he said: 

" I have returned without laurels, and, what is 
worse, without being able to render service to the 
glorious cause of liberty. I know not why Neptune 
was in such anger, unless he thought it an affront in 
me to appear on his ocean, with so insignificant a 
force. It is certain that till the night of the 8th, I 
did not fully conceive the awful majesty of tempest 
and of shipwreck. I can give you no just idea of 
the tremendous scene that nature then presented, 
which surpassed the reach even of poetic fancy and 
the pencil. I believe no ship was ever before saved 
from an equal danger off the point of the Penmarque 
rocks. 

" I am extremely sorry that the young English 
lady you mention should have imbibed the national 
hatred against me. I have had proofs that many 
of the first and finest ladies of that nation are my 



THE RETURN TO AMERICA. 21/ 

friends. Indeed I cannot Imagine why any fair lady 
should be my enemy, since, upon the large scale of 
universal philanthropy I feel, acknowledge, and bend 
before the sovereign power of beauty. The Eng- 
lish nation may hate me, but I will force them to 
esteem me too." 

Jones was exceedingly distressed that his sailors 
had not received one single dollar of prize money. 
They blamed him, and he could not make it clear to 
their impassioned minds that he was not to blame. 
The prizes, which had been sent into the French 
ports, had now been sold. But legal technicalities 
seemed to render it necessary that the money should 
be paid in America. Even Dr. Franklin could not 
deny that such was the proper interpretation of the 
statute. The money was consequently remitted to 
the French minister, M. Chaumont, to be forwarded 
to this country. Commodore Jones wrote pleadingly 
in behalf of the suffering sailors. 

'' By virtue of the authority I had received from 
the government," he wrote, " my honor was pledged 
to see these men justly paid. I have already suf- 
fered many reflections on their account. I beseech 
your excellency to order them immediate payment." 

The spirit of Dr. Franklin was in a state of great 
perturbation in view of these wrongs, which seemed 
to paralyze all the sinews of action. From a sick 

lO 



2l8 PAUL JONES. 

bed, upon which it is not improbable that trouble 
had thrown liim, he wrote to the Court, strongly 
soliciting, under the circumstances, the payment of 
the money. It was not until the i8th of December 
that the shattered, heavily laden Ariel was again 
prepared for sea. In his journal, Jones writes : 

'* On this day I bade adieu to the beloved nation 
of France ; where, though I have met with some 
difficulties, I have many reasons to be satisfied. I 
am charmed with the courteous behavior that so 
nobly marked the character of that generous minded 
people." 

As he had important despatches on board, which 
he was directed to sink rather than allow to fall into 
the 'hands of the enemy, and as the cargo he carried 
was of inestimable value to the colonies, he resolved 
to seek no prizes, but to cross the ocean as rapidly 
as possible, by an unfrequented track, taking the 
southern passage along the edge of the trade winds. 

After being out several days he found himself 
far south, in the latitude of Barbadoes. In a dis- 
tance a ship hove in sight. There could be but lit- 
tle doubt that it was an English ship. After care- 
fully examining it with his glass he saw that it was 
a fast-sailing, well-armed English frigate. The Ariel 
was not in a condition to give battle to such an 
opponent. He hoped, in the darkness of the night. 



THE RETURN TO AMERICA. 219 

to escape. He therefore changed his course and 
spread every sail. In the morning he found, much 
to his disappointment, that the frigate was still 
nearer to him than the evening before. 

An action was now unavoidable. The frigate 
would surely board him, and, by examining his 
papers, find out who he was and where he was bound. 
Immediately the most vigorous measures were 
adopted to prepare for action. It is probable that 
Commodore Jones had resolved never, under what- 
ever circumstances, to surrender to the British flag. 
Everything was thrown overboard which could in- 
terfere with the efficiency of the defence. The sails 
and helm were so managed, and other precautions 
adopted, as to conceal, as far as possible, the force of 
the Ariel. He assumed the character of a merchant- 
ship Hghtly armed. 

The chase soon became very eager. As soon as 
the frigate came within gun-shot of the Ariel, Jones 
opened fire from his quarter-deck, with his stern 
chasers. The wind became very light, so that hour 
after hour, on these mild tropical seas, the pursued 
and the pursuer glided along, without the distance 
between them being sengibly diminished. 

As night approached the frigate came within 
hailing distance of the Ariel. Jones, as he examined 
her armament, was well pleased to find that he had 



220 PAUL JONES. 

a force to contend with not much superior to his 
own. He immediately raised the English flag, and 
quite a conversation took place between the com- 
manders of the two ships. Jones learned that the 
frigate was called the Triumph, under command of 
Captain John Pindar. Assuming that the Ariel was 
an English ship conveying stores to the British 
army in America, he obtained very important infor- 
mation, in reference to the position of the English 
squadron on the coast. 

At length Jones pretended not to believe Cap- 
tain Pindar, that his ship belonged to the British 
navy. He therefore ordered the captain to come 
on board the Ariel and show his commission. Pin- 
dar probably at this time had his suspicions excited. 
He declined upon the excuse that his boats leaked, 
and that he had not yet learned the name of the fri- 
gate before him, or of her commander. Jones replied : 

" I have no account to render to you. You can 
have five minutes to decide whether you will come 
on board of me or not." 

Jones held his watch in his hand. The frigates 
were lying nearly abreast and within thirty feet of 
each other. The tops of bofeh vessels were filled with 
sharp-shooters, and the gunners, with lighted matches, 
stood at the batteries. The moment the five min- 
utes had elapsed, Jones ran up the Stars and Stripes, ^ 



THE RETURN TO AMERICA. 221 

and hurled a full broadside, within pistol-shot, into 
the Triumph. It was then past seven o'clock in the 
evening. Daylight had completely faded away. 
Starlight and the flash of the guns alone lighted the 
combatants in their dreadful conflict. The crew of 
the Ariel was inspired with the indomitable energies 
of its commander. 

The Triumph instantly returned the fire of the 
Ariel. It is said that the vigorous and regular fire, 
from the top and batteries of the Ariel, had never 
been exceeded. Such a conflict could by no possi- 
bility last long. The flash and the roar of this tem- 
pest of war were incessant. Every bolt was death 
dealing. The massive irons balls tore through and 
splintered the oaken timbers, smashed gun carriages, 
tumbled about the massive ordnance, and strewed 
the decks with lifeless bodies and dismembered limbs. 
There was not one moment's intermission. Blow 
followed blow instantaneously. Amidst darkness 
and sulphurous smoke, and the angry gleam of the 
flashing guns, there were ghastly wounds, and gush- 
ing blood, and death — misery and inconceivably 
awful ruin. It was one of those scenes in this lost 
world, which has led many to inquire, '^ Can hell 
exceed this?" 

Ten minutes of this horrible carnage settled the 
question. Pindar struck his colors and cried out for 



222 PAUL JONES. 

quarter, saying that one half of his men were killed. 
Instantly the Ariel stopped fire. The men, aban- 
doning the batteries and running down from the 
tops, clustered on the deck, and gave three cheers 
in token of their victory. When a ship thus sur- 
renders, and calls for and accepts quarter, she is 
considered as a prisoner of war is considered, who 
has given his word of honor not to attempt to escape. 
With a few more broadsides Jones might have sunk 
the Triumph, which was preying upon American 
commerce. And it was his duty to have done this, 
rather than allow her to escape. 

But relying upon the honor of the English com- 
mander, he accepted the unconditional surrender. 
The Triumph was not injured in her sails or rigging. 
In the confusion of the moment, when the dead cov- 
ered the decks and the wounded were being hurried 
below to the care of the surgeon, and the guns of the 
Ariel were abandoned, the treacherous captain, watch- 
ing his opportunity, suddenly spread every sail, and 
commenced running away with all speed. Jones was 
astonished at this perfidy. He immediately spread 
every sail in pursuit. But the Triumph was much 
the swiftest sailor, and soon got out of gun-shot, and 
disappeared in the darkness. In the account which 
Commodore Jones gives of this conflict, in the jour- 
nal which he sent to the king of France, he wrote : 



THE RETURN TO AMERICA. 22$ 

" In a minute I ordered the firing to cease. And 
there were several huzzahs on board the Ariel, as is 
usual after a victory. But a minute afterwards the 
captain of the Triumph had the baseness to fill his 
sails arid run away. It was not in my power to pre- 
vent this, the Triumph sailing much faster than the 
Ariel. But if the British government had that feel- 
ing of honor and justice which becomes a great 
nation, they would have delivered up to the United 
States that frigate as belonging to them ; and would 
have punished, in the most exemplary manner, her 
captain for having thus violated the laws of war and 
the customs of civilized nations." 

On the 1 8th of February, 1 781, Paul Jones 
arrived at Philadelphia, having been absent from 
America three years, three months, and eighteen 
days. He now received what was to him an ample 
reward for his past years of toil and care. The 
renown of his exploits had spread through the land. 
No one in the army or the navy had acquired more 
celebrity. Even Mr. Lee, who had now himself 
quarrelled with Landais, and had become convinced 
that he was insane, joined in the laudations of Com- 
modore Jones. Th*e Board of Admiralty condemned 
the course of Mr. Lee, and sustained Jones. In a 
report which the Board made to Congress, on the 
2d of November, 1781, it was said: 



224 PAU^ JONES. 

" It appears that Captain Landais regained com- 
mand of the Alliance by the advice of Mr. Lee, not- 
withstanding his suspension by Dr. Franklin, who, 
by the direction of the Marine Committee, had the 
sole management of our marine affairs in Europe." 

Congress had already passed a resolve, stating, 
"That the thanks of the United States, in Congress 
assembled, be given to Captain John Paul Jones, for 
the zeal, prudence, and intrepidity, with which he 
has supported the honor of the American flag ; for 
his bold and successful enterprises to redeem from 
captivity the citizens of these States, who had fallen 
under the power of the enemy ; and, in general, for 
the good conduct and eminent services by which he 
has added lustre to his character and to the Ameri- 
can arms." 

General Washington, with his customary cir- 
cumspection, wrote to him : " Whether our naval 
affairs have, in general, been well or ill conducted, 
would be presumptuous in me to determine. In- 
stances of bravery and good conduct, in several of 
our officers, have not, however, been wanting. Deli- 
cacy forbids me to mention that particular one which 
has attracted the admiration of all the world, and 
which has influenced the most illustrious monarch 
to confer a mark of his favor, which can only be 



THE RETURN TO AMERICA. 22$ 

obtained by long and honorable service, or by the 
performance of some brilliant action." 

The warm-hearted Marquis de Lafayette wrote, 
in much more glowing terms, to his old friend. He 
was just on the point of sailing for France. His let- 
ter was dated on the Alliance, off Boston, December 
22d, 1781. 

" I have been honored with your polite favor, 
my dear Paul Jones, but before it reached me I was 
already on board the Alliance, and was every min- 
ute expecting to put to sea. As to the pleasure to 
take you by the hand, my dear Paul Jones, you 
know my affectionate sentiments, and my very great 
regard for you, so that I need not add anything on 
that subject. 

" Accept my best thanks for the kind expres- 
sions in your letter. The downfall of Cornwallis is a 
great event ; and the greater as it was equally and 
amicably shared by the two aUied nations. Your 
coming to the army I had the honor to command, 
would have been considered as a very flattering com- 
pliment to one who loves you and knows your worth. 
I am impatient to hear that you are ready to sail. 
And I am of opinion that we ought to unite, under 
you, every Continental ship we can muster, with such 
a body of well-appointed marines as might cut a 
good figure ashore and then give you plenty of 



226 PAUL JONES. 

provisions, and carte blancJie. I am s>Qxxy I cannot 
see you. I have also many things to tell you." 

Honorable John Adams wrote him, from the 
Hague. In this letter he said : " Could I see a pros- 
pect of half-a-dozen line-of-battle ships, under the 
American flag, commanded by Commodore Paul 
Jones, engaged with an equal British force, I appre- 
hend the event would be so glorious for the United 
States, and lay so sure a foundation for their pros- 
perity, that it would be a rich compensation for the 
continuance of the war." 

Commodore Jones was summoned to appear 
before Congress to answer a large number of ques- 
tions, which had been carefully drawn up, in refer- 
ence to the delay of the stores in Europe, and the 
many other difficulties in the marine which had 
occurred there. His answers were so full and satis- 
factory as to draw from Congress the most cordial 
approval of his course. In the complimentary re- 
solves it was added : 

'■'■ That the Minister Plenipotentiary of these 
United States, at the Court of Versailles, communi- 
cated to his most Christian Majesty the high satis- 
faction Congress has received from the conduct and 
gallant behavior of Captain John Paul Jones, which 
have merited the attention and approbation of his 
most Christian Majesty ; and that his majesty's offer 



THE RETURN TO AMERICA. 22; 

of adorning Captain Jones with a Cross of Military 
Merit, is highly acceptable to Congress." 

Congress at that time held its sessions in Phila- 
delphia. The French minister, M. de la Luzerne, 
gave a very briUiant fete to all the members of 
Congress. In the presence of that august body, 
with imposing ceremonials, he conferred upon Jones, 
in the name of the King of France, the honor he so 
richly merited. 

Congress commenced building, under the super- 
vision of Commodore Jones, a very splendid seventy- 
four-gun ship, to be called the America. By unani- 
mous vote of Congress, Captain Jones was intrusted 
with the command. For sixteen months he devoted 
his tireless energies to building this ship, with which 
he could bid defiance to any single ship in the British 
navy, and which would enable him to render really 
efficient service to his country. 

While abroad he had collected copies of all the 
important treatises upon naval tactics; upon the 
construction of ships, the police of fleets and dock- 
yards, and every other branch of his noble profession. 
Every moment of leisure was devoted to these studies. 
He became an enthusiastic student, resolved to 
make himself as perfect as possible in all the accom- 
plishments of his noble profession. And it is safe to 



228 PAL^ JONES. 

say that there was not, in our navy, any officer more 
thoroughly instructed. 

On the birth of thd Dauphin, the unfortunate son 
of Louis XVI. and Maria Antoinette, Commodore 
Jones mounted, on the deck of the unfinished ship 
America, a battery, at his own expense. The flag 
of France was unfurled from the mast-head, and 
salutes were fired at repeated hours during the day. 
At night the ship was illuminated, and there was a 
brilliant display of fireworks. 

Jones obtained great credit with both American 
and French officers for the skill he displayed in the 
construction of this ship. It was fifty and a-half feet 
in breadth, and one hundred and eighty-two and 
a-half feet in length. The best judges pronounced 
her to be a model of naval architecture. It was the 
largest seventy-four-gun ship then in the world. 
And yet she floated so gracefully that, at the dis- 
tance of a mile, she appeared like a delicate frigate ; 
and no one would have suspected that she had a 
second battery. 

The embarrassments which Jones experienced, 
and the delays to which he was exposed in building, 
arming, and rigging this admirable structure, were 
innumerable. Money, first of all, was wanted ; suit- 
able workmen were with difficulty found, and he 
never had more than twenty-four carpenters em- 



THE RETURN TO AMERICA. 229 

ployed. Our machinery and manufactures Avere not 
in a sufficiently advanced state to furnish proper 
material for the rigging, and suitable armament for a 
first-class ship. Nearly all such stores were to be 
brought from Europe. The ships which brought 
them had to run the gauntlet through the powerful 
fleet of England. 

There probably was not another man, then in the 
United States, capable of doing what Commodore 
Jones did in building this ship. It is to be remem- 
bered that the whole population of the United 
States, widely scattered, amounted to but about 
three millions, about the same as the present popu- 
lation of the State of New York. For such a little 
band to bid defiance to the majestic power of Eng- 
land was one of the boldest deeds ever performed. 
We should inevitably have been crushed but for the 
aid of our generous ally. 

About the middle of August Jones left Phila- 
delphia for Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where the 
ship was being built. On the way he visited the 
allied army under General Washington and the 
French General Rochambeau, then encamped at 
White Plains, in Westchester county, New York. 
There was scarcely any name then more prominent 
in the army and the navy than that of Paul Jones. 
He was received by the officers of both armies with 



230 PAUL JONES. 

flattering distinction. In addition to his merits as a 
brave warrior he was an intelHgent, courteous, accom- 
pHshed gentleman — one whose upright and elevated 
character commanded universal respect. He reached 
Portsmouth near the middle of September. There 
was everything to discourage him. The resources 
of the country seemed to be exhausted, and but a 
small portion of the materials for building the ship 
had been purchased. 

But Commodore Jones plunged into the great 
enterprise with all his thoughtful and intelHgent 
energies. No time was wasted in useless repinings. 
He was intensely anxious for active service. Super- 
intending work in the ship-yard was not congenial 
employment for him, when he longed to be upon the 
deck of his ship humbling, by his broadsides, that 
proud power which was stigmatizing the officers in 
the United States Navy as traitors, pirates, and 
thieves. During these weary months he was, how- 
ever, cheered by the conviction that he would soon 
unfurl his flag on board the America; and that 
then, with a combined French and American squad- 
ron, he would strike blows which would compel 
the British government to respect the rights of hu- 
manity. 

Before Commodore Jones commenced work oh 
the America, he had quite despaired of obtaining 



THE RETURN TO AMERICA. 23 1 

another ship. In his eagerness to be actively em- 
ployed in working out the redemption of his adopted 
country from British thraldom, he contemplated 
entering the army, to serve in the corps of Lafayette. 
The English naval officers heard of the building of 
the America, and were anxious to destroy her before 
she could put to sea. They had formed various 
plans, which were communicated by Washington to 
Commodore Jones. Ships were cruising off the har- 
bor of Portsmouth, and a fleet of armed boats was to 
be sent in at night, to apply the torch. 

Jones organized an armed guard for the protec- 
tion of the America. It was necessary for him to 
employ in this service the mechanics who were 
engaged in building the ship. Jones himself fre- 
quently took command of this guard, and carefully 
drilled them in the art of defence. They were 
thoroughly drilled, and had several pieces of cannon 
which they were taught to manage with great skill. 
They were prepared to give a very warm reception to 
any assailants. Several times, in the dim starlight, 
crowded boats were seen, pulling silently into the 
harbor with muffled oars. But the defences were 
so formidable that they never ventured to make an 
attack. 

It was near the close of 1782 when the ship was 
nearly completed and ready for launching". Jones 



232 PAulP JONES. 

now felt that he was soon to reap the reward of his 
long and painful labors. And then came a sudden, 
unexpected, terrible disappointment. A squadron 
of French line-of-battle ships, coming over to our aid, 
entered Boston harbor. One of the finest of these 
ships, the Magnifique, stranded, and was entirely lost. 
As they had come to assist us. Congress justly 
regarded the ship as lost in our service. To indem- 
nify the King of France for this loss, and to show 
our gratitude to our allies, it was at once voted to 
present the America to the King of France. Thus 
again, in a moment, were all the brightest hopes of 
Paul Jones dashed. 

It was the duty of Honorable Robert Morris, agent 
of Marine, to communicate this intelligence to the 
Chevalier Paul Jones. He evidently recoiled from 
the unwelcome task. In his kind and sympathetic 
letter he said : 

'' I know you so well as to be convinced that it 
must give you great pain, and I sincerely sympathize 
with you. But although you will undergo much 
concern at being deprived of this opportunity to 
reap laurels on your favorite field, yet your regard 
for France will in some measure alleviate it. I must 
entreat you to continue your inspection until she is 
launched, and to urge forward the business. When 
that is done, if you will come hither I will explain to 



THE RETURN TO AMERICA. 233 

you the reasons which led to this measure, and my 
views for employing you in the service of your 
country." 

The answer of Commodore Jones was worthy of 
the man. There were few who could have received 
so terrible a blow so meekly, and with so much dig- 
nity. Honorable Robert Morris acknowledged the 
receipt of his reply in a letter, which justice to Com- 
modore Jones demands should be given in full. It 
was as follows : 

" Marine Office, October 9th, 1782. 

" Chevalier Paul Jones, Portsmouth. 

" Sir — I have received your letter of the 226. 
of last month. The sentiments contained in it will 
always reflect the highest honor upon your character. 
They have made so strong an impression upon my 
mind that I immediately transmitted an extract of 
your letter tD Congress. I doubt not but that they 
will view it in the manner which I have done. 
'' I am, etc., 

" Robert Morris. 

Mr. Morris wrote, in his letter to the President 
of Congress : " I do myself the honor to enclose your 
excellency the copy of a letter which I received this 
morning from the Chevalier Paul Jones. The pres- 
ent state of our affairs does not permit me to employ 



234 PAUL JONES. 

that valuable officer ; and I confess that it is with no 
small degree of concern that I consider the little 
probability of rendering his talents useful to that 
country which he has already so faithfully served, 
and with so great disinterestedness. I should do 
injustice to my own feelings as well as to my coun- 
try, if I did not most warmly recommend this gen- 
tleman to the notice of Congress, whose favor he has 
certainly merited by the most signal services and 
sacrifices." 

Jones continued faithfully superintending the 
completion of the America, until she was launched, on 
the 5th of November. It was necessary to build this 
ship where she could be protected from the assaults 
of the British navy. It was anticipated, by many, 
that the launching would be attended with great 
difficulty. Commodore Jones attended to the minut- 
est details with wonderful skill. 

The river was not more than two hundred yards 
wide. On one side of the building slip there was a 
ledge of rocks, running half-way across the river, and 
parallel to the direction of the ship's keel. The 
opposite shore was fringed with rocks. The tide 
rushed in and out with great rapidity. It was ne- 
cessary to launch near flood-tide, when the current 
was very rapid. There was much danger that the 
ship might be swept against the ledge. This could 



THE RETURN TO AMERICA. 235 

only be obviated by cables and anchors secured on 
the shore. With great ingenuity, these were so ar- 
ranged as to check the speed of the ship, and bring 
her to a stand at a particular spot. 

The flags of France and America were blended 
in friendly union at the stern. Jones took his stand 
on a platform, near the bows of the ship. He gave 
every signal ; watched every movement, and ordered 
when the anchors at the bows were, in succession, to 
be let go. Beautifully, majestically, successfully, the 
vast fabric glided into its native element. The ad- 
miration of the thousands of spectators was an- 
nounced in enthusiastic cheers. 

On the same day ChevaHer Jones gracefully sur- 
rendered the America to Chevalier de Martigne, 
who had commanded the Magnifique. The next 
morning, again out of employment, he set out for 
Philadelphia, to seek new engagements in the service 
of his country. 



CHAPTER XI. 

The War Ended. 

Promise of the South Carolina. — A New Disappointment. — The Great 
Expedition Planned. — Magnitude of the Squadron. — The Ap- 
pointed Rendezvous. — Commodore Jones Joins the Expedition. 
— His Cordial Reception. — Great Difficulties and Embarrass- 
ments. — The Rendezvous at Port Cabella. — Tidings of Peace. — 
Return to America. — New Mission to France. 

Honorable Robert Morris wished to give 
Commodore Jones command of a large, strongly built 
frigate called the South Carolina, then in the service 
of that State. This was the ship built at Amster- 
dam, called the Indian, the command of which was 
promised to him when he went to Europe. Either 
from the inability of the commissioners to pay for 
the ship, or from the remonstrances of England that 
a ship should be built in a neutral court to aid her 
insurgent colonies, the object was defeated. In 
some way the King of France came in possession of 
the ship, and having at that time no special use for 
it he loaned it to one of the prominent members of 
his court, the Chevalier de Luxembourg. He loaned 
it to South Carolina for three years, to guard her 



THE WAR ENDED. 237 

coasts, on condition that he should receive one- 
fourth of the proceeds of her prizes. It was placed 
under the command of Commodore Gillon, who, 
with a small fleet, was to protect the harbors of 
the State. He changed the name to the South 
Carolina. 

It was an uncommonly fast and formidable ship. 
Congress was anxious to get possession of it. As 
the Chevalier de Luxembourg had received no pay- 
ment, thou|;h many prizes had been taken, he was 
dissatisfied, and very justly deemed the contract 
annulled. He therefore authorized the French min- 
ister at Philadelphia to cooperate with Mr. Morris 
in obtaining the surrender of the ship to the United 
States. Gillon heard of these movements, and 
escaped the legal process for seizing the ship, by 
suddenly putting to sea. 

The South Carolina had but just cleared the 
Capes of Delaware, when she was pounced upon and 
captured by three English frigates, the Diomede, the 
Astrea, and the Quebec, which had been stationed 
there to intercept her. Thus again were the hopes 
of Commodore Jones blighted. He had fully ex- 
pected to take command of the South Carolina. It 
was certainly from no fault of his own that he was 
disappointed. 

A French fleet of ten sail of the line was then at 



238 PAUL JONES. 

Boston, on the eve of sailing for the West Indies. 
It was there to unite with a combined French and 
Spanish fleet, under Count d'Estaing. This formid- 
able squadron, consisting of seventy vessels in all, 
with a strong land force, was to make a descent on 
the island of Jamaica, and wrest it from the English. 
Jones earnestly applied for permission to embark in 
this expedition. Ever eager to learn, and ever mod- 
estly conscious that he had much to learn, he hoped 
thus to become practically acquainted wtth the evo- 
lution of fleets on a scale so grand. His enthusiasm 
was aroused at the idea of witnessing so sublime a 
naval display. He also hoped, from his intimate 
acquaintance with those seas, to be able to render 
eminent assistance to Count d'Estaing. 

Mr. Morris applied to Congress, in behalf of 
Commodore Jones, that permission might be given 
him to join the expedition. In a very complimen- 
tary letter he wrote : 

" His present desire, to be sent with Count d'Es- 
taing, consists with all his former conduct. And 
it will, I dare say, be a very pleasing reflection to 
Congress that he is about to pursue a knowledge of 
his profession, so as to become still more useful, if 
ever he should be again called to the command of a 
squadron or a fleet." 

Congress passed a very flattering resolve, grant- 



THE WAR ENDED. 239 

ing his request, and especially recommending him to 
his excellency the Marquis de Vaudreuil. The 
commodore immediately repaired to Boston, where 
he was received by the marquis with every mark 
of attention. Though the flag-ship of the marquis, 
the Triomphante, was crowded, and sixty officers sat 
daily at his table, Commodore Jones was received 
on board that ship, and was assigned lodgings cor- 
responding with those of Vaudreuil. The splendors 
of the court of Louis XVI. still lingered around the 
court and camp of Louis XVL 

Nearly all the officers of the French army and 
navy were, men of illustrious birth, intelHgent, cliiv- 
alric, high-bred gentlemen. In this society Jones, 
himself a courtly and well-educated man, found con- 
genial companionship. He was a man of pure lips 
and refined bearing, fond of cultivated female society, 
and instinctively recoiling from all coarseness and 
vulgarity. He was esteemed a very valuable acqui- 
sition to the enterprise. His modest, friendly spirit, 
united v/ith his unrivalled intrepidity, won the affec- 
tion of the officers and the homage of the crew. 
The fact was also recognized that there was not, on 
board the fleet, a single man so intimately acquainted 
with those seas, and particularly with the island of 
Jamaica, as he was. Jones was highly pleased with 
the opportunity of improvement thus presented him. 



240 PAUL JONES. 

and with the very kind manner in which he had been 
received. In his journal he wrote, with characteristic 
modesty : 

" As the Marquis d'Estaing had commanded a fleet 
of more than seventy sail of the line, I had the flat- 
tering hope of finding myself in the first military 
school in the world ; in which I should be able to 
render myself useful, and to acquire knowledge very 
important for conducting great military opera- 
tions." 

The squadron, consisting of ten sail of the line, 
left Boston on the 24th of December, 1782. The 
course of the ships was directed toward the mouth 
of Portsmouth harbor, where they were to be joined 
by two other ships of the line, the Auguste and 
the Pluton. But a severe wintry storm arose, with 
freezing gales and snow, and drove the squadron 
far away to the vicinity of the Bay of Fundy. Here 
the fleet was for a time in imminent danger from 
its proximity to the land and to vast fields of 
floating ice. 

Many of the vessels were lost sight of in the 
storm. The Marquis de Vaudreuil steered to the 
southward, to an appointed rendezvous in the harbor 
of St. John, on the island of Porto Rico. As he 
made the land he was informed that sixteen British 
men-of-war, under Admiral Hood, were cruising 



THE WAR ENDED. 24I 

off Cape Francois, on the look-out for him ; and that 
a still larger naval force, under Admiral Pigot, was 
watching for him at Lucca, one of the extreme 
western towns of the Island of Jamaica. England 
had made such ample preparation for this anticipated 
assault ; that It was thought that the French squad- 
ron must fall a prey, either to Hood or Pigot. 

Vaudreuil remained at St. John, Porto Rico, ten 
days, waiting the arrival of other vessels of his fleet. 
Here he performed all kinds of naval evolutions, as 
a general on land would review his army. He also 
found at this place a very ample supply from France, 
to replenish his stores. The Island of Porto Rico, 
which lies off the eastern coast of St. Domingo, Is 
about one hundred and thirty miles in length, by 
thirty miles in breadth. 

The strait, but eighty miles wide, which sepa- 
rates It from San Domingo, Is called the Mona Pas- 
sage. The Island was then In a state of prosperity, 
and It carried on very extensive commerce with 
France and Spain. It at that time belonged to 
Spain, and contained a population of about eighty 
thousand. The native inhabitants had all melted 
away. The principal city, St. John, enjoyed a very 
fine harbor, and had a population of about thirty 
thousand. 

The marquis convoyed, with his fleet, sixteen 
II 



242 PAULJONES. 

French merchant vessels from the eastern to the 
western end of the island, along the northern coast. 
The general rendezvous, for the French and Spanish 
fleet, had been appointed, with the greatest secrecy, 
at a little island called Port Cabello, but a few miles 
off the extreme northern coast of Venezuela. Some 
light vessels of Admiral Hood's squadron, which 
were cruising as scouts, caught sight of the French 
fleet in the Mona passage. They immediately ran 
back with the tidings that the fleet was coasting 
along the southern shore of the San Domingo. 

But Vaudreuil suddenly turned his direction 
south, sailed down between two and three hundred 
miles to the unfrequented islands which are scattered 
along the northern shore of Venezuela. The little 
island of Port Cabello was about sixty miles west of 
the much better known island of Curagoa. A great 
expedition of this kind is liable to innumerable 
hindrances. It can never succeed, unless there is 
some imperial, Napoleonic mind, which can appre- 
ciate all its grandeur, and at the same time can reg- 
ulate all its minutest details. Such enterprises ren- 
der a dictatorship, for that purpose, indispensable. 
A ship of war, an army, a fleet, must be under dicta- 
torial power. 

But here was a squadron of more than seventy 
vessels to be gathered from several ports in the 



THE WAR ENDED. 243 

United States, from wide dispersion on the cruising 
grounds of an intense naval warfare, from several 
ship-yards of Spain and France, exposed to storms, 
to shipwreck, to misunderstood orders, to delays in 
equipping the ships, to the antagonisms and jeal- 
ousies of rival officers, and to meet, at an almost un- 
known island, thousands of miles from the place of 
departure of each ship. 

The fleet of the Marquis de Vaudreuil was swept, 
by the trade winds and the strong current of the 
Gulf Stream, sixty miles west of Port Cabello. It re- 
quired three toilsome weeks to recover this distance, 
beating against wind and tide. The accompanying 
transports, being heavily laden merchant ships, and 
not fleet sailors, bearing stores of provisions and am- 
munition and many land troops, were unable to 
recover the lost space, against wind and flood. After 
many ineffectual attempts they were compelled to 
relinquish the endeavor. They left the squadron, 
and bore away to the coast of San Domingo. 

One of the finest of the war-ships, the Burgoyne, 
of seventy-four guns, in a dark and stormy night, 
ran upon a rock, and was totally lost, with two hun- 
dred of her crew. On the i8th of February, 1783, 
the Triomphante reached Port Cabello, The Au- 
guste and Pluton, which had been separated from 
the fleet by the storm, near the Bay of Fundy, had 



244 PaTTL JONES. 

arrived a few days before. Soon after, the remaining 
war-ships of the squadron, one after another, came 
in. 

The Spanish fleet was to sail from Havana, 
under command of Don Salano. He had promised 
to be at the rendezvous punctually. But he did not 
keep his word. Probably some pique stood in the 
way. Nothing was seen of him, or heard from him. 
The Spanish government was dissatisfied with his 
course, ordered him home, and another was placed 
in command. 

The large combined force, of French and Span- 
ish ships, was to sail from Cadiz, in the extreme 
south of Spain, under Count d'Estaing. At Port 
Cabello, he was to take command of the whole ex- 
pedition. But just as the fleet was on the eve of 
sailing, the British government, alarmed by the little 
success which had attended its efforts thus far, the 
enormous expense which the conflict involved, the 
loss of all its trade with the colonies, the interrup- 
tion of its commerce throughout the world, and 
more than all by the clamor of popular indignation, 
which rose, in England, against the unrighteous war 
it was waging, which clamor would make itself 
heard in the House of Commons and the House of 
Lords, very reluctantly felt constrained to consider 
terms of peace. It was decided to defer the sail- 



^ 



THE WAR ENDED. 245 

ing of the fleet till the result of the negotiations 
could be ascertained. Thus when Vaudreuil was 
hourly looking for the arrival of his whole squadron 
at Port Cabello, his transports were distant four 
hundred miles at Cape Francois, in San Domingo. 
The Spanish squadron, under Don Solano, was dis- 
tant nearly fifteen hundred miles in Havana ; while 
the great combined fleet of France and Spain, under 
D'Estaing, was quietly reposing, at the distance of 
many thousand miles, in the harbor of Cadiz. 

The last thing at night, the officers at Cabello 
were seen at the mast-heads of the ships, ranging 
the horizon with their glasses, in search of the ex- 
pected fleets. The earhest dawn of the morning 
found them again upon the eager, anxious look-out. 
Thus the remainder of February, and the whole of 
the month of March passed sadly away. Not a sail 
was seen to break the outline where the ocean and 
the sky seemed to meet. The anxiety of the offi- 
cers became intense. Their decks were bHstered 
beneath the heat of a tropical sun. The climate was 
insalubrious. There was nothing in their surround- 
ings to cheer them. The disappointment was terri- 
ble. The officers who had embarked on the enter- 
prise with high ambition, anticipating renowned 
achievements and unfading laurels, saw all their 
hopes vanishing, and that the ridicule of the com- 



246 PAUL 



PAUL JONES. 

munity, instead of its plaudits, would attend their 
return. Such is life : 

"A path it is of joys and griefs, of many hopes and fears. 
Gladdened at times by sunny smiles, but oftener dimmed by tears." 

Serious sickness broke out, which seized alike 
officers and crew. Commodore Jones was attacked 
with intermittent fever, which seemed to paralyze his 
physical energies, leaving his mental powers in all 
their activity. On the 27th of February, the eve- 
ning before his arrival at Port Cabello, he wrote to 
the Duke de la Rochefoucauld, saying : 

** The Enghsh affairs seem in so bad a situation 
in the East Indies, that I think even the most san- 
guine among them can expect no manner of advan- 
tage for continuing the war. As Spain has, at last, 
wisely abandoned the siege of Gibraltar, and, as we 
are told, doubled her ships with copper, I cannot 
think the English so blind as not to see the great 
risk they run of being as effectually humbled by sea, 
as they are by land, should they neglect the present 
moment to make their peace. I most ardently wish 
for peace, for humanity tells me there has been too 
much blood spilt already. I am in hopes to have 
the happiness, soon after the war, to revisit France." 

The same day he wrote to Honorable Mr. Morris 
as follows : " I have already received much useful in- . 



THE WAR ENDED. 247 

formation, since I embarked, and am on such happy 
terms with the admiral and officers, both of the 
fleet and army, that I have nothing to wish from 
them. Deeply sensible how favored I am in being 
thus placed, I beg you to express my gratitude to 
Congress on the occasion, and to the Chevalier de 
Luzerne. The Marquis de Vaudreuil is promoted to 
the rank of lieutenant-general, and now carries a 
vice-admiral's flag." 

On the 25th of March Jones wrote to Lafayette, 
who had received from the king military promotion. 
In this letter he wrote: 

** I am really happy to hear that justice has been 
rendered, by his majesty, to such distinguished worth 
and exertion as yours. No less indeed could be 
expected from such a prince to such a subject. We 
hear that you are at Cadiz, in order to embark with 
his excellency Count d'Estaing. This would afford 
me the greatest pleasure, did not my love of glory 
give place to my more ardent wish for peace, and 
that you might have the happiness to carry over the 
olive branch, to a country that already owes you so 
much gratitude. 

** Humanity has need of peace ; but though I was 
led to expect it from the late speech from the throne, 
I begin to fear it is yet at some distance. There 
seems to bje a malignity in the English blood, which 



248 PAUL JONES. 

cannot be cured till, in mercy to the rest of man- 
kind, it is let out, that the disease may not become 
epidemical. I pray you to present my most respect- 
ful compliments to the Count d'Estaing. If the war 
continues, I hope for the honor of making the cam- 
paign under his orders." 

Early in April a solitary ship was seen in the dis- 
tant horizon. Her approach was watched with the 
most intense eagerness. She entered the harbor 
with floating banners and triumphant music and 
shouts of peace. She conveyed the tidings of the 
treaty which brought the dreadful war to a close. 
There were but few Americans in the fleet. Their 
joy must have been great, that their country had 
successfully fought the battles of freedom, and had at 
length escaped from the grasp of the oppressor. We 
know not with what emotions the French received 
the tidings which convinced them that the naval 
campaign in which they had anticipated such great 
results had proved so serious a failure. 

Commodore Jones was weary of war. He ever 
abhorred those atrocities inevitably involved in what 
Napoleon I. has called *' The science of barbarians." 
Just before the saiHng of the fleet he thought he saw 
indications that peace was not far distant. There 
was quite a sum of money due to him from France, 
whose remittance he was daily expecting. There , 



THE WAR ENDED. 249 

was a farm house and an extensive tract of excellant 
land for sale near Newark, New Jersey. It had 
been valued at forty thousand dollars. But property 
had so depreciated during the war, and money was 
so scarce, that it was now seeking a purchaser at ten 
thousand dollars. Commodore Jones, with his hu- 
mane feelings, literary taste, and yearnings for the 
joys of domestic hfe, was anxious to purchase this 
property. He wrote accordingly, on the 24th of 
December, 1782, intrusting the business to his friend 
John Ross, Esq. 

But the money did not come. The purchase was 
not made. Jones was far away in the harbor of 
Port Cabello. He had received no response to his 
letter, and did not even know whether his agent had 
ever received it. In this uncertainty he again wrote 
to Mr. Ross, from Port Cabello, on the i6th of March, 
1783. After briefly recapitulating the contents of 
his former letter he added : 

" As New York will probably be one of our first- 
naval ports, the proximity of that estate made me 
more desirous to own it. If, therefore, you should 
find, on inquiry, that I have been rightly informed, 
and if you can turn the merchandise in your hands 
into money, to answer for the purchase, I pray you 
to act for me as you would for yourself on the occa- 
sion. 

II* 



250 PAUL JONES. 

'* We have as yet no certain news from Europe. 
If the peace should, as I wish it may, be concluded, 
I wish to establish myself on a place I can call my 
own, and offer my hand to some fair daughter of 
liberty. If, on the contrary. Count d'Estaing should 
come out with fifty sail of the line, copper sheathed, 
and eighteen thousand troops, I shall have instruc- 
tions at the greatest military school in the world." 

The satisfaction of Jones, upon the establishment 
of peace, and the independence of the land of his 
adoption, appears to have been unqualified. He 
immediately wrote to a friend : 

" The most brilliant success, and the most in- 
structive experience in war could not have given me 
a pleasure comparable with that which I received, 
when I learned that Great Britain had, after so long 
a contest, been forced to acknowledge the indepen- 
dence and sovereignty of the United States of 
America." 

Nothing can be more evident, in the whole 
career of Commodore Jones, than that he fought not 
from the love of war, but to secure for America an 
honorable peace. Immediately upon the receipt of 
the intelligence of the treaty, the little squadron 
weighed anchor, and sailed for Cape Francois, upon 
the island of San Domingo. After a passage of 
eight days the cape was reached on the i6th of the 



THE WAR ENDED. 25 I 

month. Here Commodore Jones, though still suf- 
fering from an intermittent fever, took leave of his 
friends, and embarked for Philadelphia. It is mani- 
fest that he had commanded warmly the esteem of 
all his associates, by his upright and noble character. 
The Marquis de Vaudreuil wrote to Chevaher de la 
Luzerne, the French minister in America, as 
follows. The letter was dated at Cape Francois, 
April 20th, 1783. 

"The peace, which has been so much desired, 
and which is going to make the happiness of Ameri- 
ca, since it puts a seal to her Hberty, terminates our 
projects. We shall sail for France in a week, with 
the troops under command of Baron de Viomenil. 
Mr. Paul Jones, who embarked with me, is about 
returning to his dear country. His well-deserved 
reputation had made him very acceptable to me, not 
doubting but that we should have had some oppor- 
tunities in which his talents might have shone forth. 
But peace, of which I cannot but be glad, puts an 
obstacle in the way ; so we must part. Permit me, 
sir, to request of you the favor of recommending 
him to his superiors. The intimate acquaintance, 
which I made with him since he has been on board 
the Triomphante, makes me take a lively interest 
in what concerns him ; and I shall be very much 



252 PAUL JONES. 

obliged if you will find means of being serviceable 
to him." 

It will be remembered that Paul Jones had been 
assigned a room on board the crowded Triom- 
phantc, with Baron de Viomenil, who was in com- 
mand of the land forces. The baron, for five months, 
was in the most intimate relation with Jones. No 
one could have a better opportunity of ascertaining 
his true character. He wrote as follows, to the 
French ambassador at Philadelphia : 

" Mr. Paul Jones, who will have the honor of 
delivering to you, sir, this letter, has for five months 
deported himself among us with such wisdom and 
modesty as add infinitely to the reputation gained 
by his courage and exploits. I have reason to 
believe that he had preserved as much the feeling 
of gratitude and attachment toward France, as of 
patriotism and devotion to the cause of America. 
Such being his titles to attention, I take the liberty 
of recommending to you his interests near the Presi- 
dent and Congress." 

Viomenil also wrote the Honorable Mr. Morris, 
in high commendation of Paul Jones, and express- 
ing his desires for the prosperity of ''ce brave et 
honnete Jioinmey 

Jones appeared in Philadelphia on the i8th of 
May, 1783. He was still suffering from fever, and 



THE WAR ENDED. 253 

his constitution was greatly shattered by the hard- 
ships he had experienced. He therefore retired, for 
the recovery of his health, to the beautiful little Mora- 
vain village of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, about sixty 
miles northwest of Philadelphia, on the banks of 
the Lehigh river. Here he passed the summer, rest- 
ing from his toils and employing his time in those 
literary and scientific studies which ever deeply in- 
terested him. 

His health being much improved, he was ap- 
pointed on the 1st of November, 1783, an agent of 
the United States Government to collect the amount 
of money for prizes taken, in Europe, by vessels 
under his command. The ships had been sold, and 
the money had gone into the French treasury, and 
was not yet paid. The question was full of embar- 
rassing complications. Several years had elapsed 
since the prizes were captured. The sailors who 
had taken them were scattered in all parts of the 
world, and many were dead. Was the distribution 
of the prizes to be adjudged according to French 
law, or American law ? and these laws were very dif- 
ferent. The Bon Homme Richard was a French 
ship, purchased and armed at the expense of the 
French court, and entitled to raise alike the French 
or American flag. What proportion of the prizes 
she took belonged to France, and what to America ? 



254 PAUL JONES. 

It is manifest that, in carrying claims involving such 
embarrassments through any court or Congress, there 
was a fine opportunity for years of diplomatic strug- 
gles. It was in the autumn of 1779, that the prizes 
were taken by the Bon Homme Richard. Four 
years had since elapsed, and yet nothing had been 
done toward the settlement of the distribution of 
the prize-money. There was not another man in 
the world so well qualified to manage this difficult 
and delicate business as was Commodore Jones. 

He was personally familiar with all the facts in the 
case. By midnight studies he had made himself thor- 
oughly acquainted with the naval code of all the Eu- 
ropean nations. He was well known in the court of 
France and was very highly esteemed, alike by the 
monarch, his cabinet officers, and the people. And in 
addition to all this he was a well-bred gentleman, who 
scorned all trickery, who would make no claim which 
he did not honestly beheve to be just, and who, while 
unyielding in his righteous demand, was ever cour- 
teous and gentle in his bearing. Even Arthur Lee 
was one of the committee who recommended to 
Congress that this all-important commission should 
be assigned to Commodore Jones. As it was ex- 
pected that a large sum of money would be placed 
in his hands, he was required to give bonds, to the 
amount of two hundred thousand dollars, in pledge 



THE WAR ENDED. 255 

of his faithful administration of the trust. It is evi- 
dence of the high esteem with which he was re- 
garded by the leading men of the nation, that he 
found no difficulty in obtaining bondsmen. 

On the loth of November, Jones sailed from 
Philadelphia, in the ship Washington. After a 
stormy wintry passage of twenty days, the ship, 
instead of making the French harbor of Havre, baf- 
fled by head winds in the Channel, ran into the Eng- 
lish port of Plymouth. As Mr. Jones had impor- 
tant despatches for John Adams, then our minister 
at the court of St. James, he travelled post to Lon- 
don. Mr. Adams, after examining his documents, in- 
formed Commodore Jones that the despatches with 
which he was intrusted to Dr. Franklin, in Paris, prob- 
ably contained authorization for Adams and Franklin 
to conclude a commercial treaty with England. 

It required a journey and voyage of five days for 
Jones to traverse the distance between London and 
Paris. Franklin received his old friend with great 
cordiality. Marshal de Castries was Minister of 
Marine, Count de Vergennes occupied another of 
the most important positions in the government. 
They both received Paul Jones with all those flatter- 
ing attentions which render French society so fasci- 
nating. The Chevalier Luzerne had written to 
them both from Philadelphia, affectionately com- 



256 PAinf 



PAUT: JONES. 

mending Paul Jones to their kind regards. With 
true French politeness they informed him that they 
had received such letters, but that they were entirely 
unnecessary. 

"We have no need of letters," they said, ''to 
inform us of the merits of Commodore Jones, or to 
influence us to do him justice." 

There are different ways of doing things in this 
world ; and certainly the courteous way is the most 
agreeable. England had denounced Commodore 
Jones as a pirate. Had England captured him, it is 
not improbable that he might have been hung like a 
pirate. Captain Pearson, who commanded the 
Serapis in the encounter with the Bon Homme 
Richard, was a brave man, perhaps a humane man, 
but coarse and vulgar, quite unacquainted with the 
courtesies which regulate the intercourse of gentle- 
man. As he presented his sword to Commodore 
Jones, the unmanly Briton said : 

" It is with great reluctance that I surrender my 
sword to a man who fights with a halter about his 
neck!" 

What reply should the commodore make to 
such an insult, which Pearson probably regarded 
merely as British pluck? Should he strike his 
unarmed and helpless prisoner? Should he soil his 



THE WAR ENDED. 257 

Hps in a contest of blackguardism? His reply was 

noble. 

- Captain Pearson, you have fought Hke a hero. 
And I have no doubt that your sovereign will 
reward you for it in the most ample manner."* 

* Life of Paul Jones, by Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, Vol. i. p. 



195. 



CHAPTER XII. 

The Difficulties of Diplomacy, 

Courteous Reception in Paris. — Compliment of the King. — Principles 
of Prize Division. — Embarrassing Questions. — Interesting Cor- 
respondence. — The Final Settlement. — Modest Claims of Com- 
modore Jones. — Plan for a Commercial Speculation. — Its Failure. 
— The Mission to Denmark. — Return to America. 

Commodore Jones, upon his arrival in Paris, was 
invited- to dine with Marshal Castries, Minister of 
Marine. After dinner the marshal took the commo- 
dore aside, and said to him : 

" I am requested by his majesty the king to say 
to you that it will afford him much satisfaction to 
be able, in any way, to promote your future for- 
tune." 

The commodore immediately entered, with all 
his energies, upon the arduous duties of his mission 
There is no diplomacy equal that of a straight-for- 
ward, honest purpose. There was never a shrewd 
manoeuvrer who did not eventually manoeuvre him- 
self out of all infUience. The reader would be weary 
of the detail of all the embarrassments which, 
though the labors of two years, Commodore Jones 



THE DIFFICULTIES OF DIPLOMACY. 259 

encountered, and over which, one by one, he tri- 
umphed. And his success was never owing to cun- 
ning or intrigue, but to*the frank and manly pursuit 
of that which was just. 

A careful examination of the diplomatic corre- 
spondence, which was long-continued and with great 
ability on both sides, shows that he was ever cour- 
teous, and that he held his own spirit under such 
control, that rarely could any annoyance provoke 
him to utter an irritable or a hasty word. 

On the 20th of December Paul Jones was intro- 
duced to the king. He presented his credentials, 
and was received with the cordiality of established 
friendship. The following letter to the Minister of 
Marine will show the style and literary ability with 
which he conducted the correspondence. It was 
addressed to " My Lord Mar^chal," under date of 
February 1st, 1784. 

*'As I wish to give your excellency as little 
trouble as may be, respecting the money arising 
from prizes taken by the squadron I had the honor 
to command in Europe, I have waited, since the 
day you did me the honor to present me to his 
majesty, until this moment, in order to give you 
sufficient time for any arrangement you might find 
essential, before the division should take place 
between the ships and vessels that composed the 



26o PAUL7ONES. 

force under my command when the prizes were 
taken. 

*' I now do myself the honor to transmit you the 
enclosed official letter on that subject, from Mr. 
Franklin, Minister Plenipotentiary of the United 
States, containing a copy of my credentials as agent 
from Congress, of which I had occasion to offer an 
account upon my arrival. I also enclose a statement 
of the force, in guns and men, of each ship and ves- 
sel that composed the squadron I commanded, 
which is the only paper essential to the first division 
of the prize-money. 

'' It is the custom, in cases like the present, to 
multiply the number of the crew by the sum of the 
calibre of the cannon mounted on board each ship. 
The product gives the intrinsic' force in proportion 
to which the share of the prize-money arising to 
each ship is determined. On that ground it is my 
duty to claim the proportion arising to the Bon 
Homme Richard and the Alliance. Their propor- 
tions will afterward be divided by the American Su- 
perintendent of Finance, agreeably to the rules of the 
American navy, between the officers and the crews 
of the two ships. 

" The subdivision of the shares of the other ships 
and vessels, in proportion to their force in men and 
metal, of the prizes in which they are concerned, 



THE DIFFICULTIES OF DIPLOMACY. 26 1 

will remain with your excellency to determine, as 
may be most agreeable to the respective officers and 
men. As those ships and vessels were entirely his 
majesty's property, and their officers and men com- 
posed of French subjects, I do not presume to inter- 
fere in their respect any further than to pray your 
excellency, in the most earnest manner, to render 
them, and all concerned, that immediate justice to 
which all Europe knows their distinguished services 
so highly entitle them. As nearly four years and a 
half have already elapsed since those captures were 
made, I rely on the kind promise you gave me, that 
the prize-money shall now be immediately settled. 

" I am, with profound respect,, my lord mar^- 
chal, your most obedient and most humble servant, 

" John Paul Jones." 

The prize ships had been sold in France, and the 
money had been placed in the hand of Monsieur de 
Chaumont, one of the crown officers of finance. But 
the treasury was in debt to him. He therefore 
took the liberty of keeping the money in payment 
of that debt, leaving it for the claimants to draw 
upon the empty treasury for whatever sum might be 
due them. In reference to this aspect of affairs, 
Commodore Jones wrote to the minister. 

^' Whether Monsieur de Chaumont is indebted to 



262 PAUL JONES. 

the government, or the government is, as he says, 
indebted to him, is a matter which does not concern 
the captors of the prizes. But they have a right to 
claim the protection of government to force Monsieur 
de Chaumont to render the money, with interest, 
which he has unjustly detained from them, for four 
years and a half, while many of them are perishing 
with cold and hunger." 

This point he successfully carried. He had very 
wisely arranged with Congress that all the money he 
might recover should be transmitted by him to the 
Congressional treasury, to be paid by the minister to 
the individual claimants. According to the concor- 
dat or agreement which was entered upon with the 
French government when the little squadron sailed, 
it was settled : 

" That the division of prizes should be made 
agreeably to the American laws ; but that the pro- 
portion of the whole, coming to each vessel in the 
squadron, should be regulated by the minister of the 
Marine Department of France and the minister 
plenipotentiary of the United States of America." 

But here there were conflicting principles. By 
the laws of France a certain proportion of all prize- 
money was set apart for the support of the Hospital 
of Invalids, from which institution American sailors 
could derive no benefit. The American prize laws 



THE DIFFICULTIES OF DIPLOMACY. 263 

gave captors the whole value of ships of war, and 
half the value of merchantmen. After long negotia- 
tion the French government yielded this point also, 
and allowed the distribution to be made according 
to American law. 

There were, it will be remembered, five hundred 
British prisoners, captured by Jones, maintained at 
very considerable expense for some time by the 
French government, at the Texel. The British gov- 
ernment refused to surrender, in exchange for these 
men, American prisoners. They did, howeyer, give 
up French prisoners, in exchange for them. When 
Commodore Jones passed over these men to the 
French authorities, it was with the distinct under- 
standing that they, in conference with the British 
government, should obtain for them an equal num- 
ber of American captives, to be delivered to Commo- 
dore Jones. But the spirit of the British cabinet 
was so implacable toward the Americans, that the 
French government could not accomplish this. 

Marshal Castries now contended that the ex- 
penses attending the maintenance of these prisoners 
at the Texel, and their transportation to England, 
should be deducted from the prize-money. With 
justifiable intensity of purpose. Commodore Jones 
combated this claim. Dr. FrankHn, then in Paris, 
was in entire accord with Commodore Jones upon 



264 PAUL JONES. 

this question, as upon all the other principles Jones 
had insisted upon in the adjustment. On the 25th 
of March he wrote, in a letter addressed to '' Honor- 
able Paul Jones, Esq." : 

*' I certainly should not have agreed to charge the 
American captors with any part of the expense of 
maintaining the five hundred prisoners in Holland 
till they could be exchanged, when none of them 
were exchanged for the Americans in England, as 
was your intention, and as we both had been made 
to expect." 

The commodore immediately enclosed this letter 
in another, which he addressed to Marshal de 
Castries. He wrote : 

" The within copy of a letter which I had the 
honor to receive yesterday from Mr. Franklin, will 
convince you that he never consented, and could 
not consent, to the manner proposed by your prede- 
cessor and by M. de Chaumont for settlement of the 
prize-money due to the American officers and men 
who served under my orders in Europe. 

" I will not complain that the prisoners which I 
took and carried to Holland were not exchanged for 
the Americans, who had been taken in war upon the 
ocean, and were long confined in the English dun- 
geons by civil magistrates, as traitors, pirates, and 



THE DIFFICULTIES OF DIPLOMACY. 265 

felons. I will only say / had stick a promise from the 
minister of marine. 

*' It was all the reward I asked for the anxious 
days and sleepless nights I passed, and the many 
dangers I encountered in glad hope of giving them 
all their liberty. And if I had not been assured that 
Mr. Franklin had made an infallible arrangement 
with the courts of France and England, for their 
immediate redemption, nothing but a superior force 
should have arrested them out of my hands, till they 
had been actually exchanged for the unhappy 
Americans in England." 

This claim the French government also yielded. 
But still the weary months rolled on, and no pay- 
ment was made. The simple fact was that there 
was no money in jthe treasury. The government 
was in a condition of a man, struggling and flounder- 
ing amidst all the intolerable embarrassments of 
approaching bankruptcy. There were claims upon 
them vastly more pressing than the payment of a 
few thousand livres to a few hundred poor foreign 
seamen. Commodore Jones was fully aware of all 
this. With characteristic courtesy, kindness, and 
yet firmness, he addressed a letter, as follows, to the 
marshal on the 23d of June, 1785. 

*' By the letter your excellency did me the honor 

to write me on the 13th of May last, you were 
12 



2^ PAUL JONES. 

pleased to promise that as soon as M. dc Chardon 
should have sent you the liquidation of my prizes, 
ivJiicJi you expected ivitJwut delay, you would take 
measures for the payment, and you would let me 
know. 

^' From the great number of affairs more important 
that engage your attention, I presume this little mat- 
ter, which concerns me in a small degree personally, 
but chiefly as the agent of the brave men who served 
under my orders in Europe, may have escaped your 
memory. Since the first of November, 1783, when I 
received authority to settle this business with your 
excellency, I have been waiting here for no other 
purpose, and constantly expecting it to be concluded 
from month to month. To say nothing of my ex- 
penses during so long an interval, the uncertainty of 
my situation has been of infinite prejudice to my 
other concerns. My long silence is a proof that 
nothing but necessity could have prevailed on me 
to take the liberty of reminding your excellency of 
your promise. I hope for the honor of a final deter- 
mination, and I am with great respect, etc." 

Still there were delays of the most annoying 
character too numerous and too tedious to be 
narrated. Through all these, Commodore Jones 
retained his equanimity, and commanded the 
respect of those with whom he was contending. 



THE DIFFICULTIES OF DIPLOMACY. 267 

The expenses of Commodore Jones, as agent of the 
United States at the court of Versailles, were neces- 
sarily considerable. One could not fill the post of 
an ambassador there upon the wages of a day- 
laborer. It was essential to his influence, as he was 
daily brought in contact with the ancient nobility 
of France, that he should maintain the style of a 
gentleman. 

At length, on the 15th of July, 1785, Marshal 
Castries issued an order to pay to Commodore Jones, 
at L'Orient the sum of one hundred eighty-one thou- 
sand and thirty-nine livres, one sous, and ten der- 
niers. Thomas Jefferson was then our minister at 
Paris. In a letter addressed to him about this time, 
Jones wrote : 

" I cannot bring myself to lessen the dividend 
of the American captors by making any charge 
either for my time or trouble. I lament that it has 
not been in my power to procure for them advan- 
tages as solid and extensive as the merit of their 
services. I would not have undertaken this business 
from any views of private emolument that could 
possibly have resulted from it to myself, even sup- 
posing I had recovered a sum more considerable than 
the penalty of my bond. The war being over I 
made it my first care to show the brave instruments 
of my success that their rights are as dear to me as 



268 PAUL JONES. 

my own. It will, I believe, be proper for me to 
make oath before you, to the amount charged for 
my ordinary expenses." 

Our minister received a salary of ten thousand 
dollars a year. It required the most rigid economy, 
with that sum, to meet expenses. Mrs. Adams, the 
wife of our distinguished ambassador John Adams, 
in her letters, gives a graphic account of their resi- 
dence at the little village of Auteuil, about four 
miles from Paris. The house was large, and coldly 
elegant. There were massive mirrors and waxed 
floors, but no air of comfort. A servant polished 
the floors each morning with a brush buckled to 
one of his feet. The expenses of housekeeping were 
enormous. A heavy tax was imposed upon every- 
thing. All articles of domestic use about thirty 
per cent, higher than in Boston. It was absolutely 
necessary to keep a coach. The coachman and 
horses cost fifteen guineas a month. The social 
customs of the country required seven servants. 
The inevitable expenses of the family were so heavy 
that it required all Mrs. Adams's remarkable finan- 
cial skill to save them from pecuniary ruin. The 
humble style in which they lived, compared with the 
splendor with which the other foreign ministers 
were surrounded, often caused mortification. Mr. 



THE DIFFICULTIES OF DIPLOMACY. 269 

Jay was compelled to resign, since he could not sup- 
port himself upon his salary. 

Such were the surroundings of Commodore Jones 
in his arduous mission. And yet he practised such 
rigid economy, that he charged but five thousand 
dollars a year for all his services and expenses. 
Franklin and Jefferson both carefully examined his 
accounts and gave them their approval. They were 
then sent to Congress, where they were again sub- 
jected to a rigid scrutiny, and were again approved. 
Not long after, on the i6th of October, 1787, Con- 
gress passed the following vote : 

" Resolved unanimously, that a medal of gold be 
struck and presented to the Chevalier John Paul 
Jones, in commemoration of the valor and brilliant 
services of that officer, in the command of the squad- 
ron of American and French ships, under the flag and 
commission of the United States, off the coast of 
Great Britain, in the late war ; and that the Honor- 
able Mr. Jefferson, minister plenipotentiary of the 
United States at the court of Versailles, have the 
same executed with the proper devices." 

At the same time, Congress commended Com- 
modore Jones to the special regard of the king of 
France, and solicited permission for him to embark 
in the French fleets of evolution, convinced that 
he can nowhere else so well acquire that knowledge 



270 paulTones. 

which may hereafter render him more extensively 
useful." 

The commodore, with his intense views of life's 
duties, never found time for conviviality or any dissi- 
pating pleasures. He employed his otherwise unoc- 
cupied hours in writing a very carefully prepared 
narrative of his past services. This was not printed, 
but was read in manuscript by many distinguished 
personages. The illustrious Malesherbes, after read- 
ing the journal, wrote as follows to Mr. Jones : 

" I have received with much gratitude the mark 
of confidence which you have given me ; and I have 
read, with great eagerness and pleasure, the interest- 
ing relation. My first impression was to desire you 
to have it published. But after having read it, I 
perceive that you had not written it with a view to 
publication, because there are things in it which are 
written to the king, for whom alone that work was 
intended. However actions, memorable as yours 
are, ought to be made known to the world, by an 
authentic journal published in your own name. I 
earnestly entreat you to work at it as soon as your 
affairs will allow. In the meantime, I hope that the 
king will read this work with that attention which 
he owes to the relation of the services which had 
been rendered to him by a person so celebrated." 

While these scenes were transpiring, the re- 



^ 



THE DIFFICULTIES OF DIPLOMACY. 2/1 

nowned American traveller, John Ledyard, was in 
Paris. He proposed to Commodore Jones a com- 
mercial speculation, upon a scale of grandeur likely 
to interest his mind, and which would call into 
requisition all his administrative energies and ac- 
quired information and skill. 

The plan was to fit out a vessel of two hundred 
and fifty tons, to be thoroughly armed and equipped, 
with forty-five officers and men, to be selected in 
France. She was to sail, on the first day of October, 
for Cape Horn, and thence to the Sandwich Islands. 
There she was to take in new stores of provisions, 
and continue her route to the northwest coast of 
North America. She was to remain from April to 
October, running up and down the coast, purchas- 
ing furs of the Indians. 

Having filled the vessel, they were to make sail 
across the Pacific, for China or Japan. The rich furs 
would there bring a great price. They were to be 
sold for gold or other commodities. With this gold 
and merchandise the ship was to return to France, 
by way of the Cape of Good Hope. It was thought 
that the whole voyage would occupy about eighteen 
months. After a very close calculation it was esti- 
mated that the profits of the enterprise would 
amount to a little over one hundred and eighty 
thousand dollars. 



2/2 PAl^ JONES. 

Such was the plan in general, subject to various 
modifications, such as whether one vessel should go 
alone, or whether two should go in company. It 
was by a somewhat similar commercial enterprise 
that John Jacob Astor subsequently laid the foun- 
dation of his colossal fortune. 

There was much to recommend this plan to en- 
thusiastic and enterprising men. Its novelty lent a 
great charm. It was considered that the risks were 
small, decidedly less than those which usually at- 
tended voyages to the East or West Indies. The 
expense of the armament, and the cargo of trinkets, 
small ware, and cutlery, for traffic with the Indians, 
was very inconsiderable. It was well known that 
the northwest coast of America abounded in the 
richest furs, above all other regions in the world. 
These furs could be purchased for a mere trifle from 
the Indians. In China and Japan they would com- 
mand extravagant prices. 

Jefferson was deeply interested in this plan. In 
his mind, as in that of Paul Jones, it assumed a dig- 
nity far above that of a mere money-making enter- 
prise. It would extend our knowledge of those vast 
regions, with their wild inhabitants, which both of 
these sagacious men foresaw would eventually be 
included within the limits of the American Union. 
Paul Jones was to have the supreme command, and 



THE DIFFICULTIES OF DIPLOMACY. 273 

by his powerful influence was to obtain the vessel 
and the outfit. Ledyard was to be supercargo. 

As they pondered the plan, aided by the cool 
judgment of Mr. Jefferson, it assumed ever-increas- 
ing proportions. A trading post was to be estab- 
lished, strongly stockaded and well garrisoned. The 
Indians were to be treated with the greatest justice 
and humanity, so as to secure their good-will. 
There were to be two vessels employed, one of 
v/hich should always be on the coast. Silks and 
teas were to be purchased, upon which there would 
be an additional profit in Europe. 

The plan was manifestly so feasible and so full 
of promise, that it was necessary to keep it as secret 
as possible, lest many others should embark in the 
same enterprise, and the rivalry should become 
great. Indeed, there were rumors, which reached 
Mr. Jones's ears, that there were other parties con- 
templating a similar movement. He wrote to Dr. 
Bancroft upon the subject. He replied, under date 
of September 9th, 1785 : 

" I endeavored, as early as possible, to gain infor- 
mation respecting the object of your inquiry. But 
it was a difficult matter, none of my acquaintance 
knowing anything more of it than what had appeared 
in the public papers. Yesterday, however, I was 
informed, by a gentleman who I believe has some 



]0^ 



274 PAUL JONES. 

more knowledge of the fact, that the two vessels, 
King George and Queen Charlotte, have actually 
sailed on the expedition which was thought of by 
Mr. Ledyard, for furs, which I should suppose must 
interfere with, and very much lessen the profits of 
any simular undertaking by others.'' 

Mr. Jones wrote to Madrid, and was informed 
that the court of Spain would not allow any com- 
mercial speculation in the neighborhood of California, 
by the subjects of any other nation than her own. It 
is supposed that this fact mainly led to the abandon- 
ment of the scheme. There may have been, and 
probably were, other considerations. But we hear of 
the enterprise no more. 

The reader will remember that there w^ere three 
prizes sent by Landais to Norway, and that the 
Danish government restored them to the British 
ambassador upon the ground that the vessels had 
been captured by a people not recognized by them 
as an independent government. This was sustain- 
ing the British claim, that Jones was not a legiti- 
mate naval officer, but a mere pirate, whom they 
would be justified in hanging could they catch him. 
Every officer in the colonial army and navy, in the 
view of the British government, stood upon the 
same platform. 

The prizes thus lost to us at Copenhagen were 



THE DIFFICULTIES OF DIPLOMACY. 2/5 

valued at two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 
This was five-fold the amount recovered from the 
prizes sent into France. Upon the threatened sur- 
render of these prizes, Dr. Franklin immediately sent 
a memorial to Count Bernstorf, the Danish prime 
minister. This admirable state paper contained the 
following very characteristic sentences. After reca- 
pitulating the circumstances of the case, he adds : 

^' Permit me, sir, to observe on this occasion, that 
the United States of America have no war but with 
the English. They have never done any injury to 
other nations, particularly none to the Danish nation. 
On the contrary, they are in some degree its benefac- 
tors, as they have opened a trade of which the Eng- 
lish made a monopoly, and of which the Danes may 
now have their share ; and by dividing the British 
empire have made it less dangerous to its neighbors. 
They conceived that every nation whom they had not 
offended was, by the rights of humanity, their friend. 
They confided in the hospitality of Denmark, and 
thought themselves and their property safe when 
under the roof of his Danish majesty. 

" But they find themselves stripped of that pro- 
perty, and the same given up to their enemies, on 
the principle only that no acknowledgment had yet 
been formally made, by Denmark, of the indepen- 
dence of the United States ; which is to say that 



276 PAUL JONES. 

there is no obligation of justice toward any nation, 
with whom a treaty, promising the same, has not 
been made. This was indeed the doctrine of ancient 
barbarians ; a doctrine long since exploded, and 
which it would not be for the honor of the present 
age to revive. And it is hoped that Denmark will 
not, by supporting and persisting in this decision, 
obtained of his majesty apparently by surprise, be 
the first modern nation that shall attempt to 
revive it. 

*' The United States, oppressed by, and in war 
with one of the most powerful nations of Europe, 
may well be supposed incapable, in their present 
infant state, of exacting justice from other nations not 
disposed to grant it. But it is in human nature, 
that injuries as well as benefits, received in times of 
weakness and distress, national as well as personal, 
make deep and lasting impressions. And those 
ministers are wise who look into futurity, and quench 
the first sparks of misunderstanding between two 
nations, which neglected, may in time grow into a 
flame, all the consequences whereof no human 
prudence can foresee, which may produce much mis- 
chief to both, and cannot possibly produce any 
good to either. 

** I beg, through your excellency, to submit these 
considerations to the wisdom and justice of 



THE DIFFICULTIES OF DIPLOMACY. 2^*J 

his Danish majesty, whom I infinitely respect, 
and who, I hope, will consider and repeal the order 
above recited ; and, if the prizes which I hereby re- 
claim, in behalf of the United States of America, are 
not actually gone to England, that they may be 
stopped and redelivered to M. de Chezaulx, the con- 
sul of France, at Bergen, in whose care they were 
before, with liberty to depart for America, when the 
season shall permit. But if they shall be already 
gone to England, I must then reclaim from his ma- 
jesty's equity the value of the said three prizes, which 
is estimated at fifty thousand pounds sterling, but 
which may be regulated by the best information 
that can, by any means, be obtained." 

The three prizes thus surrendered, were the 
Betsey, the Union, and the Charming Polly. Mr. 
Jones had been so successful in his negociations with 
France, that it was deemed expedient to send him 
to Copenhagen to seek redress from the Danish 
court. He obtained the works of Grotius, and all 
other eminent writers upon the Law of Nations, and, 
aided by Thomas Jefferson, made himself familiar 
with all the principles involved in the questions at 
issue. Thus thoroughly equipped, he entered upon 
this new and difficult enterprise. In every move- 
ment of importance, at this time, Paul Jones confer- 
red with his highly valued friends, Thomas Jefferson 



2/8 PAUL JONES. 

and Benjamin Franklin, and acted with their concur- 
rence. A little before this, the Danish government 
had so far recognized the injustice of its acts, and 
the validity of our claim, as to offer to pay an in- 
demnity of forty thousand dollars. Dr. Franklin de- 
clined this offer upon the ground that the fair value of 
the prizes should be first ascertained. It was thought 
best that Commodore Jones should repair, at once, 
to Copenhagen. 

He left Paris, with this purpose, in the spring of 
1787. At Brussels he failed to receive an expected 
remittance from the sale of some bank stock he had 
ordered in America. Thus he found himself out of 
funds. This induced him to turn back, and take 
passage to the United States, to inquire into the 
condition of his pecuniary affairs. He speedily at- 
tended to his private concerns and prepared to 
return to Europe. Fully aware of the difficulty of 
his mission, he was anxious to fortify himself with all 
those moral forces which could add to his influence. 
He wrote to Honorable John Jay, our Minister of 
Foreign Affairs, soliciting from him such testimonials 
as would commend him to the Danish court. His 
letter was dated New York, July 1 8th, 1787. It 
was easy for his enemies to represent this as an act 
of mere vanity. Perhaps it was. But it was cer- 
tainly an act of wisdom, thus to endeavor to secure ^ 



THE DIFFICULTIES OF DIPLOMACY. 279 

the confidence and good-will of the court, to which 
he was commissioned for the performance of duties 
so arduous. In the conclusion of his letter to Mr. 
Jay, he wrote : 

"Since the year 1775, when I displayed the 
American flag, for the first time, with my own hands, 
I have been constantly devoted to the interests of 
America. Foreigners have perhaps given me too 
much credit. This may have raised my ideas of 
my services above their real value. But my zeal 
can never be overrated. 

" I should act inconsistently, if I omitted to 
mention the dreadful situation of our citizens in 
Algiers. Their almost hopeless fate is a deep re- 
flection on our national character in Europe. I 
beg leave to influence the humanity of Congress in 
their behalf, and to propose that some expedient 
may be adopted for their redemption. A fund 
might be raised, for that purpose, by a duty of a 
shiUing per month from seamen's wages, throughout 
the continent, and I am persuaded that no difficulty 
would be made to that requisition." 



CHAPTER XIIL 
The Mission to Denmark, 

Letter to Mr. Jefferson, — The Marquise de Marsan. — Unfounded 
Charges and Vindication. — Flattering Application from Cathe- 
rine II. — His Reception at the Polish Court. — Jones receives the 
Title of Rear-Admiral. — English Insolence. — Letter of Cathe- 
rine II. 

Just before Mr. Jones left Europe, he transmit- 
ted a letter to Congress, informing them that the 
piratic regency of Algiers had armed eight war ves- 
sels, carrying from eighteen to thirty-four guns each, 
which were to cruise between Cape St. Vincent and 
the Azores, to capture American ships. The French 
minister, M. Soulanges, at Toulon, had ascertained 
this fact, and very kindly, immediately communica- 
ted it to Mr. Jones. In writing to Mr. Jefferson upon 
the subject, the commodore said : 

'■' This event may, I believe, surprise some of our 
fellow-citizens. But, for my part, I am rather sur- 
prised that it did not take place sooner. It will pro- 
duce a good effect, if it unites the people of America 
in measures consistent with their national honor and 
interest, and rouses them from that ill-judged secu- 



THE MISSION TO DENMARK. 28 1 

rity, which the intoxication of success has produced 
since the revolution." 

One of his most valued lady friends in France, a 
daughter of Louis XV., wrote to him, in deepest 
affliction. Though a daughter of the king, and as 
such enjoying high rank, she was not regarded as a 
member of the royal family. The king bestowed a 
large fortune upon the mother, on the daughter's 
account. The father died when the daughter, who 
was a great favorite of his, was very young. The 
mother then greatly neglected this child of a royal 
sire, treating her neither with natural affection nor 
justice. This young lady was adopted by the Mar- 
quise de Marsan, who became to her as a mother, 
and introduced her to the highest society of the 
court. 

She was very happily married to M. Tellison, a 
very worthy gentleman, but without fortune. In this 
virtuous family. Commodore Jones had found, in his 
lonely hours in Paris, a congenial and happy home. 
The aged marquise regarded the young hero as her 
own son. Monsieur and Madame Tellison treated 
him with truly fraternal affection. Their httle boy 
was a great favorite of the commodore, as he fondled 
him upon his knee, and lavished caresses upon him. 

Man is born to mourn. The day of sorrow came 
to this united and happy family. On the 23d of 



282 PAUL JONES. 

June, 1787, Madame Telllson wrote to Paul Jones, in 
New York, informing him of the sudden death of 
her friend and protectress, the Marquise de Marsan, 
and of consequently a great reverse in their pecuni- 
ary condition. Jones, writing to Dr. Bancroft in 
London, alluding to this event, said : 

" This is also a great grief and loss to me, as I 
had in that lady a valuable friend." 

The letter Madame Tellison had written to Mr. 
Jones, was forwarded to him by Thomas Jefferson. 
He immediately wrote to Mr. Jefferson as follows : 

*' The letter you sent me, left the feeling author 
all in tears. Her friend, her protectress, her intro- 
ductress to the king, was suddenly dead. She was 
in despair. She lost more than a mother. A loss 
indeed that nothing can repair ; for fortune and 
favor are never to be compared to tried friendship. 
I hope, however, she has gone to visit the king in 
July, agreeably to his appointment given to her in 
the month of March. I am persuaded that he 
would receive her with additional kindness, and that 
her loss would, in his mind, be a new claim to protec- 
tion ; especially as" he well knows and has acknowl- 
edged her superior merit and just pretensions. 

" As I feel the greatest concern for the situation 
of this worthy lady, you will render me a great favor 
by writing a note requesting her to call on you. 



THE MISSION TO DENMARK. ' 283 

as you have something to communicate from me. 
When she comes, be so good as to deliver her the 
within letter, and show her this; that she may 
see both my confidence in you and my advice 
to her," 

The enclosed letter, full of gushing sympathies, 
was as follows. It was dated New York, Septem- 
ber 4th, 1787. 

" No language can convey to the fair mourner 
the tender sorrow I feel on her account. The loss 
of our worthy friend is, indeed, a fatal stroke ! It 
is an irreparable misfortune, which can only be alle- 
viated by this one reflection, that it is the will of God, 
whose providence has, I hope, other blessings in 
store for us. She was a tried friend and more than 
a mother to you. She would have been a mother 
to me also, had she lived. We have lost her. Let 
us cherish her memory and send up grateful thanks 
to the Almighty that we once had such a friend. 

'' I cannot but flatter myself that you have your- 
self gone to the king, in July, as he had appointed. 
I am sure your loss will be a new inducement for 
him to protect you and render you justice. He will 
hear you, I am sure. You may safely unbosom 
yourself to him and ask his advice, which cannot but 
be flattering for him to give you. Tell him you 
must look on him as your father and protector. If 



284 I^L JONES. 

it were necessary I think too that the Count d'Ar- 
tois,* his brother, would, on your personal appli- 
cation, render you good offices by speaking in your 
favor. I should Hkc it better, however, if you can do 
without him. 

** I am almost without money, and much puzzled 
to obtain a supply. I mention this with infinite 
regret, and for no other reason than because it is 
impossible for me to transmit you a supply, under 
my present circumstances. This is my fifth letter 
to you since I left Paris. The two last were from 
France. But you say nothing of having received 
any letters from me. Summon, my dear friend, all 
your resolution. Exert yourself and plead your own 
cause. You cannot fail of success. Your cause 
would move a heart of flint. Present my best 
respects to your sister. You did not mention her in 
your letter. But I persuade myself she will con- 
tinue her tender care of her sweet godson, and 
that you will cover him all over with kisses from me. 
They come warm to you both, from the heart." 

While in New York he heard very ungenerous 
complaints that his charge for services in recovering 
the prize-money was exorbitant. Earnestly seeking 
the good-will of his fellow-citizens, these reproaches 
pained him. He wrote upon the subject as follows : 

* Subsequently Charles X. 



^ 



THE MISSION TO DENMARK. 285 

" The settlement I made, with the court of 
France, had first Dr. Franklin's, and afterwards Mr. 
Jefferson's approbation, in every stage and article of 
the business. And I presume it wall be found, so 
far as depended on me, to merit that of the United 
States. In France I was received and treated by 
the king and his ministers, as a general officer, and 
a special minister from Congress. The credit with 
which I was honored as an officer, in the opinion of 
Europe, and the personal intimacy I have with many 
great characters at Paris, with my exclusive knowl- 
edge of all circumstances relative to the business, 
insured me a success which no other man could have 
obtained. My situation subjected me to consider- 
able expense. I went to court much oftener, and 
mixed with the great much more frequently than 
our minister plenipotentiary. Yet the gentlemen in 
that situation consider their salary of two thousand 
pounds sterling a year as scarcely adequate to their 
expenses." 

His busy mind was ever fertile in expedients for 
the public welfare. In urging upon Congress im- 
mediate and effectual measures for the rescue of the 
unhappy American captives in piratic and barbaric 
Algiers, he had urged the establishment of a fund for 
that object. He also urged that, from this fund, a 
great national hospital should be established, for the 



286 PAUL JONES. 

benefit of invalid seamen, on the plan of the renowned 
Greenwich Hospital in England, and the still more 
far-famed Hotel des Invalides in Paris. 

On the nth of November, Mr. Jones sailed from 
New York on his mission to Denmark. Unfavora- 
ble weather caused the ship to put into Dover early 
in December, 1787. He repaired to London and 
spent a few days with our minister at the court of 
St. James, Honorable John Adams. He proceeded 
to Paris, where he arrived on the nth of the month. 
For some unexplained reason he did not wish to 
have the fact of his arrival noised abroad. The day 
after he reached Paris, he had a private interview 
with Mr. Jefferson. In this interview he received 
the startling and flattering announcement, that the 
Empress of Russia was anxious to engage his ser- 
vices as an officer, in the war she was then carrying on 
against the Turks. M. Simolin, the Russian ambas- 
sador at Versailles, had been instructed to apply to 
Mr. Jones, through Mr. Jefferson, to see if the ser- 
vices of the chevalier could be engaged as an officer 
in her navy. While this plan was under considera- 
tion, he called upon several of the French ministers, 
from whom he met a very cordial reception. 

On the 4th of March, 1788, after a long and fa- 
tiguing winter journey, Mr. Jones reached Copen- 
hagen. He was then but forty years of age. His '/t] 



THE MISSION TO DENMARK. 28/ 

health, however, was much impaired by the cares, 
toil, and exposure of his stormy hfe. Soon after his 
arrival he breakfasted with the chamberlain of the 
king of Poland, for the purpose of meeting Mr. 
Simolin, the Russian ambassador. He informed 
Mr. Jones, that in consequence of the knowledge 
which the empress had obtained of his character, 
she wished him to take command of her fleet in the 
Black Sea, and that she would soon make to him 
advantageous proposals. After the Russian ambas- 
sador had retired, the chamberlain, whose guest the 
commodore was, informed him that Mr. Simolin had 
written to the empress : 

" If your Imperial Majesty will confide to Com- 
modore Jones the chief command on the Black Sea, 
with carte blanche, I will answer for it, that, in less 
than a year he will make Constantinople tremble." 

Soon after this he was presented to the royal 
family, to all of the corps diplomatique, and to many 
other distinguished personages of the coti7't. In 
speaking of his reception by the king, the queen 
dowager, and the young prince and princess royal, 
he wrote : 

" The queen dowager conversed with me for 
some time, and said the most civil things. Her 
majesty has a dignity of person and deportment 
which become her well, and which she has the secret 



288 PAUL JONES. 

to reconcile with great affability and ease. The 
princess royal is a charming person ; and the graces 
are so much her own, that it is impossible to see 
and converse with her without paying her the hom- 
age which artless beauty and good-nature will ever 
command. All the royal family spoke to me except 
the king, who speaks to no person when presented. 
His majesty saluted me with great complaisance at 
first, and as often afterwards as we met in the course 
of the evening. The prince royal is greatly beloved, 
and extremely affable. He asked me a number of 
pertinent questions respecting America. I had the 
honor to be invited to sup with his majesty and the 
royal family. The company at table, consisting of 
seventy ladies and gentlemen, including the royal 
family, the ministers of state, and foreign ambassa- 
dors, was very brilliant. 

Very earnestly Commodore Jones engaged in 
the object of his mission. He had a double motive 
to impel him to make all possible haste. In addi- 
tion to the natural desire to close up the business, 
Avhich had been thus lingering for years, he was now 
daily expecting offers of employment from the Em- 
press of Russia, which it might be greatly for his 
interest to accept. The Algerines, those merciless 
pirates of all seas, were united with the Turks of 
Constantinople, in their warfare against Russia. An ^^ 



THE MISSION TO DENMARK. 289 

Opportunity might thus be afforded him to strike a 
blow for the Hberation of the American captives. 
This was an object very near his heart. 

There is power in an illustrious name. The 
achievements of Commodore Jones were well known 
at Copenhagen. He had received a golden medal, 
for his services, from the Congress of the United 
States. The king of France had honored him with 
a gold-headed sword, and had conferred upon him 
the distinguished honor of constituting him a Knight 
of the Order of MiUtary Merit. It was also known 
that he had won the esteeip of the most distinguished 
men in Paris, and was an honored guest in the high- 
est circles of the court. These considerations were 
all elements of power, of which Mr. Jones very 
wisely availed himself. In urging the Danish min- 
ister, Count de Bernstorf, to a prompt decision, Mr. 
Jones wrote under date of March 24th : 

" The promise you have given me of a prompt and 
explicit decision, from this court, inspires me with 
full confidence. I have been very particular in com- 
municating to the United States all the poHte atten- 
tions with which I have been honored at this court. 
And they will learn, with great pleasure, the kind 
reception I have had from you. I felicitated myself 
on being the instrument to settle the delicate 
national business in question, with a minister who 
13 



290 PAUL JONES. 

conciliates the views of the wise statesman with the 
noblest sentiments and cultivated mind of the true 
philosopher and man of letters." 

If any one regards this as excessive in its com- 
plimentary tone, as it certainly appears to be, let 
him read the next letter to Count Bernstorf, after 
a delay of six days, which indicates that he could 
deal with other coin besides that of laudation. 
This letter was dated March 30th. 

" Your silence on the subject of my mission from 
the United States to this court, leaves me in the 
most painful suspense ; the more so as I have made 
your excellency acquainted with the promise I am 
under, to proceed, as soon as possible, to St. Peters- 
burg. This being the ninth year since the three 
prizes reclaimed by the United States, were seized 
upon in the port of Bergen, in Norway, it is to be 
presumed that this court has long since taken an 
ultimate resolution respecting the compensation 
demand made by Congress. 

'' Though I am extremely sensible of the favor- 
able reception with which I have been distinguished 
at this court, and am particularly flattered by the 
polite attentions with which you have honored 
me, at every conference, yet I have remarked 
with great concern, that you have never led the 
conversation to the object of my mission here. 



THE MISSION TO DENMARK. 29 1 

" A man of your liberal sentiments will not there- 
fore be surprised, or offended at my plain dealing, 
when I repeat that I impatiently expect a prompt 
and categorical answer, in writing, from this court 
to the Act of Congress of the 25th of October last. 
Both my duty, and the circumstances of my situation, 
coustrain me to make this demand in the name of 
my sovereign the United States of America. 

" But I beseech you to beheve that though I am 
extremely tenacious of the honor of the American 
flag, yet my personal interests in the decision I 
now ask, would never have induced me to present 
myself at this court. You are too just, sir, to delay 
my business here, which would put me under the 
necessity to break the promise I have made to her 
imperial majesty, conformable to your advice." 

To this very decisive communication the minister 
returned an answer full of compliments and full of 
evasions. The king had no money to spare. Yet he 
was very desirous of securing the friendship of the 
United States, that he might enter into a commer- 
cial treaty, which would be of great benefit to Den- 
mark. Amidst a vast mass of verbiage the commodore 
was informed that the king thought it best to defer 
a final settlement until the Constitution of the Uni- 
ted States was fully established ; that a settlement 
could only be made with an ambassador invested 



292 PAUL JONES. 

with plenipotentiary powers ; and that, as the nego- 
tiations were commenced with the United States 
ministers in Paris, it was not expedient to transfer 
the seat of the suspended negociation from Paris to 
Copenhagen. In conclusion, he begged Commodore 
Jones to assure the government of the United States 
of the cordial esteem of the king of Denmark, of the 
earnest desire of his majesty to form connexions 
solid, useful and essential with this country, and to 
assure the government that when the proper time 
came, nothing should be allowed to retard the con- 
clusion of an amicable settlement of a question, 
already so far advanced toward a solution. Under 
these circumstances, the only thing to be done was 
to transfer the business to Mr. Jefferson. This ena- 
bled him immediately to enter upon the service of 
the Empress of Russia. In his letter, on this occa- 
sion, to Mr. Jefferson, he wrote : 

" If I have not finally concluded the object of 
my mission it is neither your fault nor mine. The 
honor is now reserved for you to display your great 
abilities and integrity by the completion and im- 
provement of what Dr. Franklin had wisely begun. 
I rest perfectly satisfied that the interests of the brave 
men I commanded will experience in you, parental 
affection, and that the American flag can lose none 



THE MISSION TO DENMARK. 293 

of its lustre, but the contrary, while its honor is con- 
fided to you. 

" While I express, in the warm effusions of a 
grateful heart, the deep sense I feel of my eternal 
obligations to you, as the author of the honorable 
prospect that is now before me, I must rely on your 
friendship to justify to the United States the impor- 
tant step I now take conformable to your advice. 

" I have not forsaken a country that has had 
many and disinterested proofs of my affection. And 
I can never renounce the glorious title of a citizen 
of the United States. It is true that I have not the 
express permission of the sovereignty to accept the 
offer of her imperial majesty. Yet America is inde- 
pendent, is in perfect peace, and has no pubHc em- 
ployment for my military talents. 

** The prince royal sent me a messenger request- 
ing me to come to his apartment. His royal high- 
ness said a great many civil things to me; told me 
that the king thanked me for my attention and civil 
behavior to the Danish flag, while I commanded in 
the European seas ; and that his majesty wished to 
testify to me his personal esteem." 

It is said that Jones was offered a pension from 
the Danish government of fifteen hundred crowns a 
year. Jones, however, never mentioned this circum- 



294 PAUL JONES. 

stance to any of his most familiar correspondents. 
There is no evidence that he ever received one dol- 
lar of this money, but, on the contrary, much evi- 
dence that he never received any. 

The commodore repaired to St. Petersburg. He 
was received by the empress with more flattering 
attentions than the court had ever before con- 
ferred upon any stranger. The empress immedi- 
ately conferred upon him the rank of rear-admiral. 
He was detained in the capital, contrary to his wishes, 
a fortnight, where he was introduced to the first cir- 
cles of society, feasted and caressed. Jones, speak- 
ing of this reception, writes to Lafayette : 

'* You would be charmed with Prince Potemkin. 
He is a most amiable man, and none can be more 
noble-minded. For the empress, fame has never 
done her justice. I am sure that no stranger who 
has not known that illustrious character, ever con- 
ceived how much her majesty is made to reign over 
a great empire, and to attach grateful and suscep- 
tible minds." 

The attentions which Paul Jones received from 
the Russian court greatly annoyed the Enghsh in 
and about St. Petersburg. They still insolently per- 
sisted in stigmatizing a commissioned officer in the 
American navy as a renegade and a pirate^ because, 



THE MISSION Ta DENMARK. 295 

having been born in Scotland, he had espoused the 
cause of American Hberty. 

Tooke, in his Hfe of Catherine II., gives vent to 
all his bitter British prejudices. Calling Admiral 
Jones an " English pirate and renegado," he adds, 
*' Jones, not meeting with the consideration he ex- 
pected in America, made a tender of his services to 
the court of St.- Petersburg ; and the British officers, 
applicants for employment, went in a body to the 
amount of near thirty to lay down their commis- 
sions, declaring it was impossibly to serve under him, 
or to act with him in any measure or capacity. 

We read in an Edinburgh paper of that date the 
following notice of that event, probably written by a 
Russian officer. " Paul Jones arrived here a few 
days ago. He is to set out soon, to take command 
of a squadron in the Black Sea. I had the satisfac- 
tion to see this honest man, while he was examining 
one of our dock-yards. He is a well-made man of 
middle size ; he wears the French uniform with the 
Cross of St. Louis, and a Danish order which he re- 
ceived at Copenhagen, where he had the honor to 
dine with the king. He has also received, since he 
came here, one of the first Orders of Merit in this 
country, so that it is to be feared that they will spoil 
him by making too much of him. The English 



296 PAUL JONES. 

officers in the service have presented a memorial to 
Admiral Greig, refusing to serve with Jones, and 
threatening to throw up their commissions. Whether 
they will stand to their text, it is difficult to say." 

The empress paid no attention whatever to this 
petulance. Admiral Jones treated it with profound 
contempt. In writing to Lafayette, in reference to 
his treatment by the Russian court, he says : 

" This was a cruel grief to the EngHsh, and I own 
that their vexation, which was generally in and 
about St. Petersburg, gave me no pain." 

The empress with her own hands wrote to the 
admiral. In her letter she probably refers, though 
slightly, to this unmanly opposition of the English. 
We give her letter. 

" Sir — A courier from Paris has just brought 
from my envoy in France, M. Simolin, the enclosed 
letter to Count Besborodko.* As I believe that this 
letter may help to confirm to you what I have already 
told you verbally, I have sent it, and beg you to 
return it, as I have not even made a copy be taken, 
so anxious am I that you should see it. I hope that 
it will efface all doubts from your mind, and prove to 
you that you are to be connected only with those 
who are most favorably disposed toward you. I 

* Russian Minister for the Home Department. ^ 



THE MISSION TO DENMARK. 297 

have no doubt but that on your side you will fully 
justify the opinion which we have formed of you, 
and apply yourself with zeal to support the reputa- 
tion and the name you have acquired for valor and 
skill on the element in which you are to serve. 
" Adieu. I wish you happiness and health. 

*' Catherine." 
13* 



CHAPTER XIV. 
The Russian Campaign. 

Admiral Jones repairs to the Black Sea. — Designs of Catheiine II. — 
Imposing Cavalcade, — Turkey Declares War against Russia, — 
Daring Conduct of Admiral Jones, — A Greek Officer Alexiana, — 
The Prince of Nassau Siegen, — Annoyances of Admiral Jones 
from Russian Officers. — Battle in the Black Sea, — Jones yields 
the Honor to the Prince of Nassau. 

At the same time when Chevalier Jones re- 
ceived his flattering letter from the empress, her 
prime minister sent to him a despatch, requesting 
him to repair to the naval headquarters on the 
Black Sea, that he might take part in the opening 
of the campaign. The minister also assured him, in 
the name of the empress, that everything possible 
should be done to make his situation agreeable, and 
to furnish him with opportunities for the exercise of 
his valor and skill. It is not surprising that the 
admiral, receiving such marks of attention from her 
imperial highness, should have formed a high esti- 
mate of the excellence of her character. He wrote 
to Count Segur at this time, saying : 

*' I shall write to the empress, who hath sent me 



THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN. 299 

a letter full of goodness. But I shall never be able 
to express how much greater I find her than fame 
reports. With the character of a very great man, 
she will be always adored as the most amiable and 
captivating of the fair ^ex." 

War had been impending for several years 
between Russia and Turkey. The Turks, in the 
wanton spirit of barbarian conquest, without the 
shadow of excuse for the invasion, had crossed the 
Hellespont with an overwhelming army, had seized 
Constantinople, and rushing onward in the tide of 
victory, had unfurled their triumphant banners within 
sight of the battlements of Vienna. All Europe had 
trembled beneath the tread of the terrible Moslem 
armies. Catherine was anxious to drive these usurp- 
ing Turks back from Europe, across the Dardanelles 
and the Bosphorus, into their Asiatic wilds. She 
would make the imperial city of Constantine her 
maritime capital and her great naval depot, from 
which most admirable point she could command the 
commerce of the world. This was the real and ever- 
constant cause for the war, which for nearly a cen- 
tury had been waged between Russia and the Porte. 
But innumerable and frivolous pretexts had been 
brought forward, as excuses for an appeal to arms. 

About ten years before this, the empress had 
established a naval depot on the right bank of the 



300 PATO JONES. 

Dnieper, not very far from the entrance of the river 
into the Euxine, or Black Sea. Imperial influence 
soon brought a population of forty thousand to this 
port, which became an important dock-yard, where 
the largest ships-of-war were launched. The region 
around was wild, savage, filled with wandering, half- 
civiHzed Tartar tribes. Russian gold and Russian 
arms gradually gained the ascendency and the tribes, 
with their territory, were gradually annexed to the 
majestic Russian Empire. 

Catherine then contrived, by a treaty with the 
Porte, to obtain the sovereignty over the immense 
province of the Crimea ; also a sort of dominion over 
the Black Sea, and the right to pass with her ships 
through the Dardanelles. In anticipation of the con- 
quest of Constantinople, she caused her young son 
to be called Constantine. The King of Poland, the 
Emperor of Austria, and most of the other powers 
of northern Europe, were in sympathy with the 
ambitious designs of Russia. They all wished to see 
the Turks driven back into Asia. In that case, most 
of them would receive portions of the immense terri- 
tory which the Turks had overrun in Europe. But 
England was intensely opposed to the designs of 
Russia. The Turkish Empire, England regarded as 
an important and necessary barrier between the 



THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN. 3OI 

rapidly growing power of Russia and her own pos- 
sessions in the East Indies. 

In the year 1786, Catherine projected a magnifi- 
cent progress to her new possessions on the Euxine. 
The enterprise was organized with all the imposing 
brilliance which oriental grandeur could create. The 
immense cavalcade, numbering thousands of the 
plumed and gayly dressed chivalry of Europe, fol- 
lowed down the magnificent valley of the Dnieper. 
All the most prominent members of the Russian 
court accompanied the empress. The ambassa- 
dors of France, Austria, and of England were in her 
train. The latter were probably instructed, careful- 
ly to observe all the movements. 

At the city of Kief, some six or seven hundred 
miles from the mouth of the river, Prince Potemkin 
joined the imperial party with a brilliant cavalcade 
of the princes, dukes, and counts of the minor pow- 
ers of Europe. The King of Poland, with a large 
retinue of his nobles, commenced the journey with 
the empress. The Emperor of Austria, with a still 
more imposing escort, joined her on the way. 

The Turkish government was quite troubled, in 
view of this remarkable visitation. Four of the larg- 
est ships of the line were sent to cast anchor at the 
mouth of the Dnieper ; though they were instructed 
not to make any hostile demonstrations. 



302 PAlflT JONES. 

The empress returned to St. Petersburgh. Soon 
after this, Turkey declared war against Russia, with 
England for her adviser. An army of eighty thou- 
sand men was ordered to march instantly along 
the western shore of the Euxine, to the mouth of the 
Dnieper. Sixteen ships of the line, eight frigates, 
and a large number of gun-boats, passed through the 
Bosphorus into the Euxine. The Turks had drawn 
the sword, and thrown away the scabbard. 

The news of this declaration of war by Turkey 
was received with great joy at St. Petersburg. It 
was just what the empress desired. At Cherson, 
Odessa, and other points at the mouth of the Dnie- 
per, she had created quite a formidable fleet. At 
very short notice, she could launch on the waters of 
the Euxine, eight ships of the line, twelve frigates, 
and nearly two hundred gun-boats. Joseph II. of 
Austria had entered into alliance with the empress. 
Eighty thousand Austrian troops were sent to 
cooperate with the Russian arms, in Wallachia. 
Two Russian squadrons, under Admirals Kruse and 
Greig, were ready to cooperate in the -Mediterranean. 
Such was the state of affairs between Russia and 
Turkey, at the time Commodore Jones accepted the 
invitation of the empress. He subsequently wrote a 
very carefully prepared journal of the difficulties he 

4 



THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN. 303 

encountered, and of the results of this all-important 
enterprise. 

This journal, very handsomely executed, was en- 
grossed in the French language, and was accompan- 
ied by ninety-three Pieces Justificative s, or documen- 
tary proofs, of the accuracy of all his important state- 
ments. The truthfulness of this narrative has never 
been called in question. It was not published until 
after his death. Justice to Admiral Jones demands 
that 1 should quote freely from this very important 
document. The reader will thus obtain a more cor- 
rect idea of the true character of the man, and of the 
adventures upon which he entered, than could be 
gained in any other way. After describing the cir- 
cumstances under which he was led to enter into 
the service of the empress, he writes : 

" In Denmark I put in train a treaty between 
that power and the United States, but it was inter- 
rupted by a courier from St. Petersburg, despatched 
express by the empress, inviting me to repair to her 
court. 

'^Though I foresaw many difficulties in the way 
of my entering the Russian service, I believed I 
could not avoid going to St. Petersburg, to thank 
the empress for the favorable opinion she had con- 
ceived of me. I transferred the treaty, going for- 
ward at Copenhagen, to Paris, to be concluded there, 



304 PAUL JONES. 

and set out for St. Petersburg, by Sweden. At 
Stockholm I staid but one night, to see Count 
Rasoumorsky. Want of time prevented me from 
appearing at court. 

'' At Gresholm, I was stopped by the ice, which 
prevented me from crossing the Gulf of Bothnia, and 
even from approaching the first of the isles in the 
passage. After having made several unsuccessful 
efforts to get to Finland by the isles, I imagined that 
it might be practicable to effect my object by doub- 
ling the ice to the southward, and entering the Bal- 
tic Sea. 

" This enterprise was very daring, and had never 
before been attempted. But by the north, the roads 
were impracticable ; and knowing that the empress 
expected me from day to day, I could not think of 
going back by Elsinore. 

" I left Gresholm early one morning, in an un- 
decked passage-boat about thirty feet in length. I 
made another boat follow of about half that size. 
This last was for dragging over the cakes of ice, and 
for passing from one to another to gain the coast of 
Finland. I durst not make my project known to the 
boatmen, which would have been the sure means 
of deterring them from it. After endeavoring, as 
before, to gain the first isle, I made them steer for 
for the south, and we kept along the coast of Sweden 



THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN. 305 

all the day, finding with difficulty room enough to 
pass between the ice and the shore. Toward night, 
being almost opposite Stockholm, pistol in hand I 
forced the boatmen to enter the Baltic Sea, and 
steer to the east." 

Here it is obvious to remark, that this was out- 
rageously unjust. These poor boatmen, with parents, 
wives, and children perhaps, dependent upon them, 
had never promised at whatever hazard, to take him 
across that stormy sea. Indeed he had studiously 
concealed from them the peril of the enterprise upon 
which he had embarked. If the admiral were willing, 
in view of the fame and fortune which were enticing 
him beyond those tempest-tossed ice-fields, to incur 
the dreadful risks, he had no right to compel these 
poor men to peril their lives in a cause in which 
they had nothing to gain. If we understand the facts^ 
as given by the commodore himself, the course which 
he pursued on this occasion is entirely unjustifiable. 
Admiral Jones continues : 

" We ran toward the coast of Finland. All night 
the wind was fair, and we hoped to land next day. 
This we found impossible. The ice did not permit 
us to approach the shore, which we only saw from a 
distance. It was impossible to regain the Swedish 
side, the wind being strong and directly contrary. 
I had no other course but to make for the Gulf of 



306 PAUL JONES. 

Finland. There was a small compass in the boat, 
and I fixed the lamp of my travelling carriage so as 
to throw a light on it. 

*' On the second night we lost the small boat, 
which was sunk. But the men saved themselves in 
the large one, which with difficulty escaped the same 
fate. At the end of four days, we landed at Revel 
in Livonia, which was regarded as a kind of miracle. 
Having satisfied the boatmen for their services and 
their loss, I gave them a good pilot, with the pro- 
visions necessary for their homeward voyage when 
the weather should become more favorable." 

The admiral arrived at St. Petersburg on the 
evening of 23d of April, O. S. On the 25th, he had 
his first audience with the empress. On the 7th of 
May, he set out for the seat of war. The long and 
dreary journey across the whole breadth of Russia to 
the banks of the Euxine, occupied twelve days. 
He reached the mouth of the Dnieper on the 19th. 
The Prince Marshal Potemkin was there, and re- 
ceived him very kindly. He requested the admiral 
immediately to assume command of the naval force 
stationed near the mouth of the river. He remained 
at Cherson but one evening and night, but that 
short time showed him that he would have very 
serious obstacles to encounter. 

The Russian rear-admiral, Mordwinoff, did not ^ 



_ THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN. 307 

affect to disguise his displeasure at his arrival. He 
gave the new admiral a very sullen reception, delayed 
communicating to him the details of the force under 
his command, and manifested no disposition to place 
him in possession of the silk flag, which belonged to 
his rank as rear-admiral. The River Bog empties 
into the Dnieper near the point where that majestic 
stream pours its flood into the Black Sea. Here 
the waters expand into a bay, affording good anchor- 
age ground, called the Roads of Shiroque. The 
Russian fleet of ships and gun-boats was assembled 
at this place. Early in the morning after the admi- 
ral's arrival at Cherson, he accompanied General 
Mordwinoff down the river to the naval rendez- 
vous. They reached the flag-ship Wolodimir about 
mid-day. 

One of the most prominent officers in the squad- 
ron was a Greek by the name of Alexiano. He was 
a fearless, coarse, unmannerly fellow, who had been, it 
was said, a pirate in the Archipelago, and by his 
piracies, plundering the commerce of all nations, had 
greatly enriched himself. This man had assembled 
all the commanders of the ships, and had endeav- 
ored to unite them in a cabal against the new ad- 
miral. In this he had not been fully successful. 
Still he had created antagonisms to the authority of 
Admiral Jones which caused him great embarrass- 



308 PAUL JONES. 

ment. Alexlano had obtained the grade of captain, 
with the title of brigadier. 

The Turkish fleet and flotilla were a few miles 
below the roads of Shiroque, nearly opposite Ocza- 
kow, which was held by a strong garrison of the 
Turks, and was besieged on the land side by the 
Russians, the Turkish fleet holding the harbor. Ad- 
miral Jones, very wisely avoiding all angry contention 
with his opponents, proposed to one of the Russian 
officers who was friendly to him, that they should 
descend the bay together, and carefully reconnoitre 
the strength and position of the Turkish forces. 
While he was absent. Prince Potemkin, who was 
second in authority to the empress only, exerted all 
his influence to restore harmony. In this he was 
partially successful. The admiral, upon his return, 
found all the officers apparently contented ; and 
on the 26th of May, 1788, he hoisted his flag on 
the Wolodimir. 

The Prince of Nassau Siegen, one of the German 
principalities, was a very singular man. He was rat- 
tle-brained, excessively vain, and quite destitute of 
either ability in counsel or skill in execution. Ad- 
miral Jones had been slightly acquainted with him 
in Paris, and was very sorry to meet him as an asso- 
ciate on a military expedition. This man had a 
most exalted idea of his own importance, and joined 



THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN. 309 

the expedition of the Russian empress, with the im- 
pression that the success of the campaign depended 
mainly upon him. One of his first instructive remarks 
to Admiral Jones was : 

" If we gain any advantage over the Turks, it is 
essential to exaggerate it to the utmost." 

To this statement, which was made with a very 
patronizing air, the admiral simply replied : 

** I have never adopted that method of making 
myself of consequence." 

The rank of the prince, his possessions, and his 
boastful braggadocio spirit had strangely deceived 
the empress. The fleet consisted of two pretty dis- 
tinct portions ; a squadron of powerful war vessels 
and a large flotilla of gun-boats. The necessity of 
cooperative action in military expeditions is such, 
that Napgleon I. once remarked : 

'' It is better to intrust the command of an army 
to one poor general than to two good ones." 

Admiral Jones found that while he was intrusted 
with the command of the war-ships, the flotilla of 
gun-boats was placed under the independent orders 
of the Prince of Nassau. Nothing efficient could be 
accomplished against the powerful and well-manned 
navy of the Turks without the cooperation of the 
whole Russian fleet of ships and boats under the 
direction of a single mind. And yet there probably 



310 PAUL JONES. 

were not in all Europe two men less calculated to 
act together than Admiral Jones and the Prince of 
Nassau. 

These two immense fleets and armies were fa- 
cing each other. The headquarters of the Russians 
was at Cherson, while the Turks had their central 
rendezvous about fifty miles farther southeast, at 
Oczakow. The spacious waters between Cherson 
and Oczakow, where the Dnieper and the Bog pour 
their widening floods into the Euxine, were filled 
with the ships of the line, the frigates, and the gun- 
boats of the contending parties. 

For four months there was almost a continuous 
series of manoeuvres and skirmishes, rising occasionally 
into hotly contested battles. The region was full of 
shoals and sand-bars, where the heavily-armed ships, 
and even the gun-boats, were continually Tunning a 
ground. Prince Potemkin was in the supreme com- 
mand of the whole force, naval and military. He 
stood in the place of the empress, and was said in 
reality to have more power than Catherine herself. 
Admiral Jones found that he could originate no 
movement. He could only obey orders, and must 
wait patiently until he received them. When orders 
were given, the ships alone were subject to his com- 
mand. The Prince of Nassau was jealous of his 
renown, and seemed often disposed rather to thwart 



THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN. 3II 

than to aid the efforts of the admiral. He was a man 
of considerable skill in cunning and intrigue, and had 
led even Potemkin to apprehend that great results 
were to be accomplished by the action of his gun- 
boats. 

The latter part of May, 1788, the Turkish admi 
ral came to the succor of Oczakow, with an addi- 
tional fleet of one 'hundred and twenty armed vessels, 
and other armed craft. Thus the Turkish naval 
force, in those waters, far surpassed that of the 
Russian. Admiral Jones was requested with his 
ships to harass the Turks, in all the ways in his 
power without exposing himself to loss. The Turks, 
conscious of their superiority, were not disposed to 
run any risks. Admiral Jones was also disappointed 
in finding that several of his ships were merely large 
pleasure barges, with which the empress and her 
court, had floated down the Dnieper. These were 
inefficiently armed, and were but poorly prepared 
for a conflict with the oak-ribbed ships of the Turks. 

Admiral Jones was sorely tried. He saw but 
little opportunity, under such circumstances, for any- 
thing to be accomplished to the honor of the Russian 
flag. He however invited all the leading officers, 
both of the squadron and of the flotilla, to his cabin, 
and thus addressed them : 



312 PAUL JONES. 

^* Gentlemen — Having been suddenly called to 
serve her imperial majesty, I have need of double 
indulgence, being as yet ignorant of the language 
and customs of the country. I confess I mistrust 
my capacity properly to discharge all the duties of 
the high trust with which her majesty has honored 
me. But I rely on my zeal, and your favor, coopera- 
tion, and candid advice, for the good of the service. 
You are met, gentlemen, on serious business. We 
are to discuss points which touch nearly the honor 
of the Russian flag and the interests of her majesty. 

" We have to deal with a formidable enemy, but 
if we are united, and of one mind in all our efforts ; 
if our operations are well concerted and vigorously 
executed, the known courage of the Russians, the 
cause of the empress and of the country, the re- 
membrance of so many past victories, afford us the 
most flattering hope of success, and cannot fail to 
inspire invincible resolution. We must resolve to 
conquer. Let us join our hands and our hearts. 
Let us show that our feelings are noble, and cast far 
from us all personal considerations. Honor enough 
may be gained by every individual ; but the true 
glory of the citizen is to be useful to his country." 

This concilatory speech of the admiral seemed 
to have produced a good impression. They all 



THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN. 313 

agreed to combine their energies in an attack, the 
next day, upon an exposed portion of the Turkish 
fleet, in accordance with a plan presented by Ad- 
miral Jones. 

In consequence of the shallowness of the water, 
most of the manoeuvres were to be conducted by 
the gun-boats. The heavy ships could sweep over 
only a limited range, being of necessity confined to 
the channels of deep water. Admiral Jones, conse- 
quently, took his station on board the gun-boats, 
passing from one to another, as the incidents of the 
conflict required. A very fierce battle was fought. 

Admiral Jones seems to have been born insensible 
to fear. Amidst the most terrific scenes of death 
and destruction, he moved with as unperturbed a 
spirit as if he were merely contending with an ordi- 
nary storm at sea. Much of the time, he was in the 
same gun-boat with the Prince of Nassau. The 
prince had the good sense to be guided by the advice 
of the officer who was, in every respect, so vastly his 
superior. The victory was decisive for the Russians. 
Two of the Turkish ships were burned. The Turk- 
ish flotilla of fifty-seven vessels was driven from the 
ground it had occupied, to seek protection under the 
heavy guns of the squadron. As the battle was 
mainly conducted by the gun-boats, the admiral left 
all the honor with the Prince of Nassau. Still, Ad- 
14 



314 PAUL JONES. 

miral Jones formed the plan, and guided in all the 
tactics of the strife. And he could not prevent it 
from being whispered, that the honor of the victory 
really belonged to himself. This annoyed the Prince 
of Nassau. 

Alluding to this fact, Admiral Jones wrote, on the 
nth of June, in a letter to Mr. Littlepage, chamber- 
lain of the King of Poland : 

" Prince Potemkin wrote me a letter of thanks 
for the affair of the 7th. If the honor had been 
ten times greater, I should have renounced it al- 
together, in favor of the Prince of Nassau. But I 
am sorry to say he is too jealous to be content with 
my self-denial. Perhaps he is ill-advised without 
knowing it. There is nothing consistent with my 
honor that I would not do, to make him easy. I am 
the more in pain, as I understand he spoke favorably 
of me to Prince Potemkin before I arrived. If he now 
becomes my enemy, I shall not imitate his example. 
It was my intention to pay him a compliment, when 
I said in my letter to the prince, * that he had taken 
my counsel in good part, in the affair of the 7th.' 
I showed the Prince of Nassua that letter, and he 
seemed pleased with it. In the affair, he em.braced 
me, and said we * should always make but one.' But 
now I find a false construction has been put upon my 



THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN. 315 

letter, and his jealousy supersedes every noble senti- 
ment." 

Ten days after this, Admiral Jones again wrote 
to Mr. Littlepage, in which letter he says : 

" I have put up with more from the Prince of 
Nassau than, under other circumstances, I could have 
done from any man who was not crazy. I can no 
more reckon upon his humor than on the wind. One 
hour he embraces me, and the next he is ready to 
cut my throat." 

As we have mentioned, the naval force of the 
Turks far exceeded that of the Russians. The Turk- 
ish admiral, whose title seems to have been " Capi- 
taine Pasha," was a man of decided ability. Admi- 
ral Jones had been led to form a very high opinion 
of his character both as an officer and a gentleman. 
He had formed the plan to make a sudden and un- 
expected attack, with his whole force of ships and 
gun-boats, upon the Russian flotilla and squadron ; by 
running down the gun-boats and throwing a shower 
of fire-balls upon the squadron, he hoped to destroy 
the whole fleet. 



CHAPTER XV. 
Adventures in the Black Sea, 



The First Battle. — Folly of the Prince of Nassau. — Inefficiency of 
the Gun-boats. — Burning of the Greek Captives. — Humanity 
of Jones. — Alienation between the Admiral and the Prince of 
Nassau. — The Second Conflict.— Annoyances of the Admiral. — 
Hostility of the English. — Necessary Employment of Foreign 
Seamen. — Disgrace of Nassau. — Transference of the Admiral to 
the Baltic. 



It was the plan of Admiral Jones, to anticipate 
the contemplated attack of the Capitaine Pasha, 
and so to weaken him as at least to embarrass his 
movements. The plan he proposed was so neces- 
sary and apparently so feasible, that it was accepted 
by all the officers. During the night, as the wind 
did not favor, he warped the ships of his squadron, 
by means of their anchors, to the positions he wished 
them to occupy. The next morning, which was the 
17th of June, 1788, the wind was fresh and fair. At 
the earHest dawn the admiral signalled for all his 
war ships to bear down upon the Turkish fleet, 
which was before him in the broad shallow bay, at 
the distance of but a few miles. The gun-boats, ^ 



ADVENTURES IN THE BLACK SEA. 317 

under the command of the Prince of Nassau, followed 
tardily behind the squadron. Their progress was so 
slow, though there was no occasion whatever for the 
delay, that the admiral had to halt twice, in order 
to allow the gun-boats to come up with him. 

It was a brilliant spectacle which was presented 
in the rays of this June morning's sun. The majes- 
tic bay, into which were poured the waters of the 
Dnieper, the Bog, the Liman, and several other 
minor streams, spread out in all directions. The 
whole Russian fleet of ships and gun-boats, in 
beautiful battle array, was bearing down under 
full sail with a fair wind, upon the unsuspecting 
and unprepared Turks. The moment the Capitaine 
Pasha caught sight of the wondrous spectacle, he 
v/as terror-stricken. The force rushing upon him 
appeared far more powerful than it really was. The 
wind being fresh and fair, the Turkish admiral saw 
at once that the whole Russian armament might 
strike any portion of his Hne before other portions 
could come to its aid. His only resource was in 
flight. The same wind which was bringing down 
the Russian fleet upon him, would bear him onward 
in his escape, to take shelter under the massive guns 
of the batteries and ramparts of Oczakow. 

The signal was given for the flight. As in the 
twinkling of an eye, a wonderful scene of tumult and 



3l8 TAUL JONES. 

confusion was presented along the whole Turkish 
line. The ships, the frigates, the gun-boats were rais- 
ing their anchors, cutting their cables, spreading their 
sails, and pulling their oars, in the frantic endeavor 
to escape the impending peril. Admiral Jones 
opened fire upon the bewildered foe, from his bow 
chasers, wherever a gun could be brought to bear. 

The second officer in command of the Turkish 
fleet seemed to act like one bereft of reason, in the 
panic which had apparently seized all alike. He 
had charsre of one of the finest of the Turkish line- 
of-battle ships ; a mammoth fabric, with its tiers of 
death-dealing guns, which would have been a match 
for any ship in the British navy. But assailed by a 
dozen Russian ships and gun-boats, it would in a 
few moments have been sunk beneath the waves, 
or blown into the air. As the vast sails of this ship 
were flung to the breeze, it slowly wheeled around, 
got under rapid headway and ran plump upon a 
sand-bank, beyond all possible hope of extrication. 
As she struck, she careened over at an angle of 
forty-five degrees. The muzzles of her guns, on the 
lower side, were dipped into the water ; upon the 
upper side, they pointed to the clouds. Thus the 
ship could neither fight nor run. The crew, as many 
as could, crowded into the boats, escaped from the 
ship, and took refuge in other vessels of the fleet. 



ADVENTURES IN THE BLACK SEA. 319 

Admiral Jones knew that the ship was his. It 
was a magnificent prize. It needed no further atten- 
tion. He therefore gave chase to the ship of the 
Capitaine Pasha. The Prince of Nassau, to the 
great chagrin of Admiral Jones, came up with his 
gun-boats, threw fire-balls into the splendid prize, 
and burned it to the water's edge. 

The flag-ship of the Turkish admiral was also an 
unwieldy mass to navigate the intricate channels 
of this shallow bay. It soon struck a sand-bank, 
and was helpless. The crew fled. There were now 
nine of these large Turkish ships-of-war aground. 
They were manned by Turkish sailors, and also by 
a large number of Greeks, who had been subjugated 
by the Turks, and being nominal Christians, were 
in entire sympathy with their Christian brethren 
the Russians. These men were compelled to serve 
the Turkish guns, as England often compelled im- 
pressed American seamen. 

The Prince of Nassau seemed to have lost all 
control of his gun-boats. They ran about here and 
there, independent of all command, and did what 
they would. Like Indian warriors, each boat fought, 
plundered, or destroyed, on its own account. A 
cannon-ball had struck the flag-staff of the deserted 
admiral's ship, and broke it off so that the flag hung 
down draggling it in the water. The Prince of Nas- 



320 PAU#50NES. 

sau, eager of the honor of capturing the flag of the 
Turkish admiral, hurried up with one of his gun- 
boats, seized the defenceless banner, and then in- 
sanely threw his fire-balls into the ship till it was 
wrapped in flame and disappeared. 

The other boats of the flotilla, imitating this ex- 
ample, rushed about pell-mell without order or plan, 
offering no cooperation to follow up the victory, and 
wantonly amusing themselves in burning the 
grounded ships. All of these Turkish vessels had 
more or less of the Greeks on board. In vain these 
poor creatures cried for mercy. They threw them- 
selves upon their knees ; they made the sign of 
the cross, to indicate that they too were Christians. 
The barbarous and fanatic Russian sailors, ignorant 
and cruel, threw their fire-balls on board the ships, 
and consigned vessels and crew alike to the flames. 
Above three thousand of these unhappy men were 
burned with their ships. Only two of the stranded 
vessels were saved from the flames. One was a 
sloop, very, indifferently armed, and the other a 
small brig. 

Though this was a great victory, it probably 
gave Admiral Jones more pain than pleasure. He 
was appalled by the frightful, needless carnage, of 
burning the poor Greeks crying for mercy. Such a 
mode of carrying on war was abhorrent to his humane 



ADVENTURES IN THE BLACK SEA. 32 1 

feelings. No results had been accomplished com- 
mensurate with what might have been secured, had 
there been order in the fleet. These nine grounded 
vessels, with their powerful armaments, would have 
been of immense advantage, transferred from the line 
of the Turks to that of the Russians. It is not 
strange that by this time Admiral Jones lost all 
patience with his very undesirable coadjutor. Under 
date of June 20th, he wrote to his PoHsh friend, 
Chamberlain Littlepage, as follows : 

" Without explaining to me any of his reasons, 
the Prince of Nassau wished to go to the sand-bank 
which was under the guns at Oczakow, with all his 
flotilla. I opposed it, for all the Turkish flotilla was 
under the cannon of the place, within cannon- 
shot of our right wing. He permitted himself to 
say many uncivil things. Among others he said that 
he was always wanted to protect my squadron with 
his flotilla. 

" As he had often said such things, I told him 
that it was improper for him to say this to me, or for 
me to hear him say it. He boasted that he had 
taken the two ships. I told him ' I saw nothing won- 
derful in that ; for they were both aground and cap- 
tured before he came up.' He said * he knew better 
than I did how to take ships.' I told him that with- 
out impugning his skill, he was not ignorant that I 

14* 



322 PAUL JONES. 

had proved my ability to take ships which were not 
Turks'. He lost all control of himself, and threat- 
ened to write against me to the empress and Prince 
Potemkin. 

" As for that, I told him if he were base enough 
to do it, I defied his malice. Before this ridiculous 
dispute, our combination was unnecessary. Other- 
wise I would have put up with still more for the 
good of the service. I feel no rancor against him ; 
and though he said, in a bitter tone, that I would be 
rejoiced to see him beaten, he little understood my 
heart." 

The prince claimed all the honor of this victory. 
He so boastfully proclaimed his achievements, that 
Prince Potemkin was disposed to accept his account 
of the adventure, especially as Admiral Jones had 
too much self-respect to dispute his statements in a 
disgraceful squabble for the honor. 

Potemkin, elated by this discomfiture of the 
Turks, brought up his whole land force to the walls 
of Oczakow, intending to attempt to carry the works 
by storm. The Turkish gun-boats were riding at 
anchor, under the protection of the guns of the for- 
tress. The Prince of Nassau was ordered to attack 
the flotilla with his whole force of gun-boats. The 
admiral was to assist, as he could, in towing the Rus- 
sian flotilla to the position it was to take in the con- 



^ 



ADVENTURES IN THE BLACK SEA. 323 

test. The whole plan of the battle was arranged by 
Potemkin, so that Admiral Jones had but Httle to do 
but to obey the orders, which were sent to him, 
though in some respects he was left to his own dis- 
cretion. 

At one hour after midnight, the flotilla com- 
menced its advance toward the Turkish boats ; but 
hesitatingly, with no indication that they were under 
the impulse of a guiding and inspiring mind. Some 
of the most important of the boats were swept by the 
current to positions where they could accomplish 
nothing. In the vicinity of the fortress there was 
deep water. The admiral cooperated with great effi- 
ciency in bringing the boats into position. At six 
o'clock in the morning, he saw five Turkish galleys, 
protected by the guns of Fort Hassan. He plunged 
upon them, boarded the first one he came to, seized 
it as a prize, and with his boats towed it away. He 
then attacked the next galley, which was a very 
large one, bearing the flag of the Capitaine Pasha. 
Before the admiral could arrange his boats, to haul 
out the prize, a young officer, inexperienced and agi- 
tated, cut the cable by which she rode at anchor, 
and a fresh breeze drove her rapidly toward the fort. 

The Turks were now pouring a destructive fire 
upon their own vessel The admiral despatched a 
boat to the Wolodimir to fetch another anchor and 



324 PAUL JONES. 

cable. Leavln^^ the galley to be manned with his 
own sailors, till the boat should return, he pressed 
forward to other conquests. He writes in his jour- 
nal: 

" Before the return of Lieutenant Fox, I had the 
mortification to see fire break out in the galley of 
the Capitaine Pasha. I at first believed that the 
slaves chained on board had found means to escape. 
But afterwards I had positive proof that Brigadier 
Alexiano, being in a boat at the time with the Prince 
of Nassau, on the outside of the flotilla, and being 
aware of the intention of the rear-admiral, swore that 
it should not succeed, and sent a Greek canoe to set 
fire to the galley. The three other Turkish galleys 
were at once run down and burned by fire-balls. 
There were also a two-masted ship, and a large 
bomb-vessel burnt near Fort Hassan. This includes 
all that was taken or destroyed by water, save fifty- 
two prisoners taken by the rear-admiral, in the two 
galleys. The wretched beings who were chained in 
the galley of the Capitaine Pasha, perished there in 
the flames. 

" The prince marshal having made an important 
diversion on the land side, it is to be regretted that 
advantage was not taken of this movement to seize 
the remainder of the enemy's flotilla ; but our flotilla 
never came up within reach of grape-shot." ^ 



ADVENTURES IN THE BLACK SEA. 325 

Admiral Jones took the precaution to have the 
accuracy of this statement confirmed, by five of the 
leading captains of the Russian ships. The Turkish 
fleet, being thus again humbled, retreated that very 
night, both squadron and flotilla, to a strong position 
at the mouths of the Danube. The admiral remained 
at his station, to watch the enemy and to be pre- 
pared for any emergence. He gives the following 
account of the proceedings of his two singular coad- 
jutors, the German prince, and the Greek brigadier. 

" The moment the ships began to withdraw from 
Oczakow, the Prince of Nassau and Brigadier Alex- 
iano hurried straight to the headquarters of Prince 
Potemkin to relate the things which both pretended 
they had performed. In a few moments after the 
flotilla began to retire, the rain fell in torrents, of 
which Nassau and Alexiano received their own share 
before reaching headquarters. 

" Two days after\vards, Alexiano returned on 
board the Wolodimir, having caught a malignant 
fever, of which he died on the 8th of July. The 
Prince of Nassau, who had made use of him in cabal- 
ing against me — God knows wherefore — neither 
visited him in his sickness nor assisted at his fu- 
neral. At first it was given out, that the service 
must sustain the loss of every Greek in it, on account 
of his death ; but I soon experienced the reverse. 



326 PAU^ONES. 

Not one asked to be dismissed ; they remained under 
my command with the Russians, and were more 
contented than before. On the day preceding the 
death of Alexiano he had received inteUigence of 
having been promoted two grades ; and that her 
majesty had bestowed on him a fine estate and 
peasants, in White Russia. 

*' At the same time, the Prince of Nassau had 
received a very valuable estate, with three or four 
thousand peasants, also in White Russia, and the 
military Order of St. George, of the second class. 
Her majesty likewise gave him liberty to hoist the 
flag of vice-admiral at the taking of Oczakow, to 
which event it was apparently believed he would 
greatly contribute. 

'' I received the Order of St. Anne, an honor with 
which I am highly flattered, and with which I could 
have been perfectly satisfied, had others been recom- 
pensed only in the same proportion, and according 
to the merit of their services." All the officers of 

* Upon the reception of the Order of St. Anne by the empress. 
Count Segur wrote from St. Petersburg a very complimentary letter to 
the admiral, under date of the 14th of July, 1788. In this letter he says : 

" The empress being absent I forwarded a copy of the greatest 
part of your letter to General Mouronoff, who had it read to that 
princess. She is highly satisfied with it, and in two lines from her 
hand, has been pleased to charge me with assurances to you, of the 
great respect in which she holds your services. General Mouronoff 
begs me to say that he will endeavor to merit the obliging things 
you say of him." 



ADVENTURES IN THE BLACK SEA. 327 

the flotilla received a step of promotion, and the 
gratuity of a year's pay. The greater part of them 
also obtained the Order of St. George of the last 
class. Only two of these officers had been bred to 
the sea ; none of the others had been engaged in 
navigation. The officers of the squadron under 
my command were almost wholly marine officers. 
They had done their duty well, when opposed to 
the enemy ; but they obtained no promotion, no 
mark of distinction, no pecuniary gratification. My 
mortification was excessive ; but my officers at this 
time gave me a very gratifying proof of their attach- 
ment. On promising that I would demand justice 
for them from the Prince Potemkin, at the close of 
the campaign, they stifled their vexation, and made 
no complaint." 

Three days after this important naval battle, 
Prince Potemkin came from the headquarters of the 
army, to visit Admiral Jones on board the flag-ship 
Wolodimir. The prince was accompanied by quite 
a brilliant retinue of the highest dignitaries of his 
military court. They all remained to dine with the 
admiral in his spacious cabin. The prince was very 
anxious to promote harmonious action between the 
admiral and the Prince of Nassau. By his powerful 
influence he succeeded in inducing the Prince of 
Nassau to make an apology to the admiral, in the 



328 PAUL JONES. 

presence of all around the table. The apology was 
cordially accepted ; and the admiral, knowing the 
versatile and frivolous character of the prince, hoped 
that it was sincere. 

As Potemkin took his leave, he requested Admi- 
ral Jones to do all in his power toward raising the can- 
non, anchors, and other effects, belonging to the Turk- 
ish ships which had been burned. The next day, 
Admiral Jones, in a spirit of concilation, made a visit 
to the Prince of Nassau. He had previously detailed 
one of the transport ships, which was empty and un- 
employed, to the work of raising some of the sunken 
guns. As soon as he stepped on board the gun-boat 
of the prince, he was disrespectfully assailed, when 
he expected to have been received with open arms. 

'' That transport,** exclaimed the Prince of Nau- 
sau, angrily, ** which you have ventured to employ 
on your own services, belonged to my flotilla, and 
you had no right to take it under your command." 

The admiral mildly replied, ** Prince Potemkin 
charged me to engage at once in that important bus- 
iness, as a servant of the empress. As all the vessels 
of war, and all the transports alike belong to her im- 
perial majesty, and as the transport in question was 
empty and unemployed, I cannot see that you have 
any reasonable cause of complaint against me." 

But Nassau fumed and raged. The admiral, 



ADVENTURES IN THE BLACK SEA. 329 

ashamed of such puerile quarrelHng, sadly took leave 
of him, begging him to reflect that he had no cause 
for displeasure. Thus affairs went on, day after day. 
There were heart-burnings and bickerings, and the 
admiral found such influences operating against him, 
that his hands were eflectually tied. 

At the close of the American war, there were 
many British officers thrown out of employment, who 
eagerly entered into the service of the Empress of 
Russia. 

This vast northern empire, with then no access to 
the ocean but through the Baltic Sea, was not a mar- 
itime power. The empress had very few naval offi- 
cers of any experience. By seizing Constantinople, 
undoubtedly the finest port in the world, the empress 
expected that the sails of her ships would whiten all 
the seas. Eagerly, therefore, she accepted the ser- 
vices of able mihtary men from whatever nation. 
There were no better naval officers than England 
could afford. These men with one accord, as we 
have mentioned, combined, with the most astonishing 
and persistent malignity, to crush Admiral Jones. 
The Enghshman, W. Tooke, to whom we have be- 
fore referred, with his bitter British prejudices 
expresses the sentiments of them one and all. In 
his Life of Catherine II. he writes : 

" This known scarcity of commanders could not 



330 PAUL JONES. 

fail to attract the attention of foreign adventurers, 
who had acquired any experience and reputation in 
maritime affairs. Of this number was the Enghsh 
pirate and renegado, Paul Jones, who had rendered 
himself so notorious in the American war by the mis- 
chiefs he did to the trade of his country, and whose 
desperate courage, which only served to render his 
atrociousness conspicuous, would in a good cause 
have entitled him to honor. 

" This man could not but experience the common 
fate incident to his character ; and finding he did not 
meet the consideration which he expected in Amer- 
ica, he made a tender of his services to the court of 
St. Petersburg, where he was gladly received, and 
immediately appointed to a high command in the 
grand fleet which was under equipment at Cronstadt. 

" The British officers, full of those national and 
professional ideas of honor which they had imbibed 
in their own country and service, considered this ap- 
pointment as the highest affront that could be offered 
to them, and a submission to it, an act of such de- 
gradation that no time or circumstance could wipe 
away the dishonor. They accordingly went in a body, 
to the amount of near thirty, without a single dissen- 
tient lagging behind, or hesitating on account of in- 
convenience or personal distress, to lay down their 
commissions ; declaring at the same time that it was ^ 



ADVENTURES IN THE BLACK SEA. 33 1 

impossible for them to serve under, or to act in 
any manner or capacity whatever, with a pirate or 
renegado." 

In the same spirit as the above, the English his- 
torians have, from that day to this, written of this 
noble man. 

On the 1 8th of September, the admiral received 
a secret order to attack the advance guard of the 
squadron which was anchored near Beresane. The 
attack was to be made with five frigates, mounted 
as batteries, supported by a few other vessels of the 
squadron, as reserves. The arrangements which 
were made for arming the frigates for the enterprise 
were not such as he could approve. For instance, 
twenty-four pound-shot were to be used in guns of 
thirty-six pounds calibre. To make these balls fill 
the bore, they were dipped in pitch to enlarge their 
circumference. This was exceedingly dangerous. 
If the smallest particle of combustible matter 
adhered to the gun, it would set fire to the next 
cartridge. A single such accident would paralyze 
the energies of the bravest man. 

The admiral presented to Potemkin a plan of 
attack. The Prince Potemkin apprpved the plan. 
The Prince of Nassau objected to it. There were 
delays, and fault-findings ; the admiral being ready 



332 . PAUL JONES. 

to move, either upon his own plan or upon any other 
whenever the command should be given him. 

On the 13th of October, the admiral received an 
order which wounded him very deeply. It was as 
follows : 

" As it is seen that the Turkish admiral has a 
greater number of vessels than yourself, and he may 
resolve to attempt something before quitting his 
grand fleet, I must request your excellency to hold 
yourself in readiness to receive him courageously, 
and drive him back. I require this to be done with- 
out loss of time ; if not, you will be made answerable 
for every neglect. I have already ordered the 
flotilla to approach. 

"Prince Potemkin." 

To these unkind words the admiral replied in his 
journal : 

" It will be hard to believe that Prince Potemkin 
addressed such words to Paul Jones." 

To the prince he wrote ; 

*' I leave to your highness, as you have a noble 
heart and a magnanimous soul to judge how an 
officer who fears nothing, and had nothing where- 
with to reproach himself, must have been affected by 
your order, of the 13th. I was directed * to keep 



ADVENTURES i^ THE BLACK SEA. 333 

myself In readiness to receive the enemy courageously, 
and that without Loss of time, for if 7iot, etc.' 

" I was in despair having been all heart and soul 
for the good of the service ; and having done all that 
a man of honor could to inspire a confidence which 
I believed I had deserved at your hands, allow me, 
my prince, to ask you how it happens that I have 
been so unhappy as to have lost your regard. My 
enemies themselves cannot refuse me their respect. 
General Count de Mamonow assured me of your con- 
fidence in me, giving me the most flattering hope 
of your friendship, and her imperial majesty told 
me the most obhging things to the same effect. 
At all events, your highness has so good a heart that 
you will excuse the hastiness of expression which 
escaped me in my letter on the 14th. 

*' I am anxious to continue in the service. It is 
unnecessary to recite either the promises or the 
offers which have been made to me. I am disposed 
to do all that can be asked of a man of honor, in my 
situation. And if you find in me an acquisition to 
the imperial marine, it belongs to yourself to fix me 
in Russia. But as I come neither as an adventurer, 
nor a charlatan to repair a broken fortune, I hope 
in future to experience no humiliation, and soon to 
find myself in a situation which was promised to me 
when I was invited to enter into the marine of the 



^ 



334 PAITL JONES. 

empress. Perhaps I love honors too much. But as 
to fortune, though my own is not very great, I never 
bent the knee to that idol. I well know that riches 
do not insure happiness. I am sure of one thing, if 
I had the happiness of once enjoying your confi- 
dence, it would be for life, for I am not of a charac- 
ter that can change." 

Prince Potemkin had gradually come to the con- 
clusion that it was best to remove both Admiral 
Jones from the command of the squadron and the 
Prince of Nassua, and to place both squadron and 
flotilla under the command of the Russian admiral, 
Mordwinoff. On the 9th of October, the Prince of 
Nassau was deprived of his command, and left the 
shores of the Euxine for Warsaw in Poland. Nine 
days after, on the i8th of October, Admiral Jones 
received the following order from Prince Potemkin. 

^' According to the special desire of her imperial 
majesty, your service is fixed in the northern seas. 
And as this squadron and the flotilla are placed by 
me under the orders of Admiral Count Mordwinoff 
your excellency may in consequence proceed on the 
voyage directed." 

This was unquestionably a severe blow to Ad- 
miral Jones. He had hoped to accomplish great 
results in the campaign of the Euxine. And now 
he was ordered to the shores of the Baltic, more than ^ 



ADVENTURES IN THE BLACK SEA. 335 

a thousand miles distant, to serve her majesty in 
some manner as yet undefined. Russia was at 
that time at war with Sweden. But in those high 
latitudes and ice-bound, waters, there was but little 
opportunity in midwinter for naval warfare. 

On the 20th, the admiral repHed to the unex- 
pected order he had received, in the following note 
to Potemkin : 

*' I am much flattered that her majesty yet 
deigns to interest herself about me. But what I 
shall forever regret is the loss of your regard. I 
will not say that it is difficult to find more skilful 
sea officers than myself. I know well that it is a very 
possible thing. But I feel emboldened to say that 
you will never find a man more susceptible of a faith- 
ful attachment, or more zealous in the discharge of 
his duty. I forgive my enemies who are near you, 
for the painful blow aimed at me. But if there is a 
just God, it will be difficult for him to do as much." 

This intimation that Potemkin had been led to 
this action by the persuasions of others, annoyed 
the imperial prince, who considered himself rather 
the master than the servant even of her majesty. 
When, a few days after, the admiral called at head- 
quarters, to take leave of the prince, Potemkin said 
to him, with much vehemence, at the same time 
rising from his chair and stamping with his foot : 



33^ TAVL JONES. 

*' Do not believe that any one leads me, not even 
the empress." The prince, however, presented the 
following letter to the admiral, to be presented to 
the empress in testimonial of his services. 

" Madam — In sending to the high throne of your 
imperial majesty Rear-Admiral M. Paul Jones, I take 
with submission the liberty of certifying the eager- 
ness and zeal which he has ever shown for the ser- 
vice of your imperial majesty, and to render himself 
worthy of the high favor of your imperial majesty. 

" From the most faithful subject of your imperial 

majesty, 

" Prince Potemkin." 

"Oct. 31, 1788," 



CHAPTER XVI. 
Retirement and Death. 

The Return to Cherson. — Sickness and Sadness. — Oczakow Stormed. 
— The Wintry Journey to St. Petersburg. — Mental Activity. — 
Calumniated by the English. — The Admiral's Defence. — Slander- 
ous Accusation. — His Entire Acquittal. — Testimony of Count 
Segur. — Letter to the Empress. — Obtains Leave of Absence. — 
Returns to France. — Life in Paris. — Sickness and Death. 

On a cold bleak morning of the 9th of November 
Admiral Jones, with a disappointed and saddened 
spirit, stepped from the deck of his flag-ship, the Wolo- 
imir, into an open boat which had been launched at its 
side. A freezing blast tossed and crested the waters 
of the widely expanded sea, while his own ships rolling 
heavily on the billows, and the masts of the Turkish 
squadron could be seen rocking to and fro, far away in 
the distance. In this open boat, exposed to the win- 
try gales, encountering sleet and snow, and drenched 
with spray, the war-worn, world-weary admiral spent 
three days and three nights, before he reached Cher- 
son. His sufferings, from the combined influence of 
hostile elements and an agitated mind, were very 
great. 

IS 



338 PAUL JONES. 

The day after his arrival, an impassable barrier 
of ice extended as far as the eye could reach. Com- 
pletely worn out, he sank upon his bed, and it was 
long- doubtful whether he would ever leave it till he 
was borne to his burial. Slowly he recovered. 
Nearly a month passed away, of winter's most dis- 
mal storms in that dreary region, ere he was able to 
set out on his long journey of more than two thou- 
sand miles, across the whole breadth of Russia. 

He left Cherson on the morning of the 6th of 
December, 1788. The mercury was then at twenty- 
six degrees below zero. That very morning, as he 
soon afterwards learned, the Russians took Oczakow 
by storm. Eleven thousand soldiers composed the 
Turkish garrison. In the intensity of the cold, just 
before the dawn of day, the Russians, in six strong 
columns, with loud yells, a storm of bullets, and 
gleaming sabres, rushed upon the Turks, taking them 
completely by surprise. It was an awful scene of 
demoniac clamor, blood, and woe. In a few hours 
the dreadful deed was done. Not one in the garri- 
son, not a Turk in the city, was spared. Nineteen 
thousand gory corpses, frozen in the wintry blast, 
strewed the streets of the city. Had the Turks been 
victorious, the Russians would have been put to the 
sword with equal ferocity. Such is man in his treat- 



RETIREMENT AND DEATH. 339 

ment of his brother. Such, in the main, has been 
the history of our race since the Fall. 

In the swiftly drawn sledges of Russia, Admiral 
Jones was whirled along over the drear and treeless 
plains, at the rate of over one hundred miles a day. 
At Skloff, he made a short tarry, where he was re- 
ceived by General Soritsch, with the most distin- 
guished attention. He reached St. Petersburg on 
the 28th of the month, after a journey of twenty-two 
days. The empress invited him to the honor of 
a private audience on the 31st. He presented 
the letter from Prince Potemkin. The empress re- 
ceived him kindly. He was informed that a little 
time must elapse, before it could be decided what 
new command should be intrusted to him. He was 
however assured that it should be one certainly of 
not less importance than that of a squadron in the 
Black Sea. 

The mind of the admiral was always in intense 
activity. The one thought which seemed ever to 
engross him ever the promotion of the prosperity 
of the United States. During the few weeks of 
repose which were thus forced upon him, he drew 
up a very carefully prepared plan, of an alliance, poli- 
tical and commercial, between Russia and the United 
States. The object of this plan was to promote 
reciprocal advantages, and especially to encourage 



340 PAUL JONES. 

commerce with the growing Russian settlements on 
the Black Sea. This document he presented to the 
Russian vice-chancellor, Count d'Osterman. The 
count, after carefully examining it, invited the 
admiral to his cabinet, and said to him : 

*' The plan is a good one, but I do not think it 
expedient to adopt it at this time. A commercial 
alliance between Russia and the United States 
would still futher irritate the British government 
against Russia. We must postpone the further con- 
sideration of this question until we have made peace 
with the Turks." 

England, in her desire to engross the commerce 
of the world, wished to cripple that of all other 
nations, especially that of the United States. The 
admiral, in his journal, speaks as follows of the efforts 
of the English to crush him : 

" I have been more deeply hurt by those secret 
machinations against me as regards the empress. 
My enemies have had the wickedness to make her 
beUeve that I was a cruel and brutal man, and that 
I had, during the American war, even killed my own 
nephew. It is well known that, from motives of 
revenge, the English have invented and propagated 
a thousand fictions and atrocities, to endeavor to 
blacken the character of the celebrated men who 
effected the American Revolution. A Washington 



RETIREMENT AND DEATH. 34I 

and a Franklin, two of the most illustrious and virtu- 
ous men that have ever adorned humanity, have not 
been spared by these calumniators. Are they now 
the less respected by their fellow-citizens ? On the 
contrary they are universally revered, even in Europe, 
as the fathers of their country, and as examples of 
all that is great and noble in human character. 

'^ In civil war, it is not wonderful that opposite fac- 
tions should mutually endeavor to make it believed 
that each is in the right. And it is obvious, that 
the party most in the wrong will always be the 
most calumnious. If there had really been anything 
against my character, the English would not have 
failed to furnish convincing proofs of it ; for with very 
slender means, I had been able to give more alarm 
to their three kingdoms, during the war, than any 
other individual had done. As an officer, I loved 
good discipline, which I consider indispensable to 
the success of operations, particularly at sea, where 
men are so much crowded, and brought into such 
close contact. In the English navy, it is known 
that captains of ships are often tyrants who order 
the lash for the poor seamen very frequently, and 
sometimes for nothing. In the American navy we 
have almost the same regulations. But I looked on 
my crew as my children, and I have always found 
means to manage them without flogging. I never 



342 PAUL JONES. 

had a nephew, nor any other relation under my com- 
mand. I have one dear nephew, who is still too 
young for service, but who now pursues his studies.* 
Since I came to Russia, I have intended him for the 
imperial marine. Instead of imbruing my hands in 
his blood, he will be cherished as my son. 

^' In short, my conduct has obtained for me the 
returns most grateful to my heart. I have had the 
happiness to give universal satisfaction to two great 
and enlightened nations which I have served. Of 
this I have received singular proofs. I am the only 
man in the world that possesses a sword given by the 
King of France. It is to me a glorious distinction 
to wear it. I have indelible proofs of the high con- 
sideration of the United States. But what completes 
my happiness is the esteem and friendship of the 
most virtuous men, whose fame will be immortal ; 
and that a Washington, a D'Estaing, a Lafayette, 
think the bust of Paul Jones worthy of being placed 
side by side with their own." 

Mahgnantly as the admiral was pursued, being 
far away in a strange land, and removed from the 
protection of his ~ personal friends, it seemed abso- 
lutely necessary that he should speak in his own 
defence. Even his great namesake, the illustrious 

* Mr. William Taylor, merchant, of New York, son of the admiral's 
eldest sister, Mrs. Taylor of Dumfries, Scotland. 



RETIREMENT AND DEATH. 343 

Apostle Paul, found himself so situated as to deem it 
needful commend himself. At this time the most 
infamous conspiracy was got up, as the admiral and 
Count Segur both affirm, by the Enghsh officers in 
the navy and the English merchants in St. Peters- 
burg. It was intended utterly to ruin the man 
whom they had so unscrupulously assailed. Bio- 
graphical fidelity renders it necessar}^ that this story 
should be told, notwithstanding the nature of its 
details. The admiral promptly wrote to his friend. 
Prince Potemkin, informing him of the cruel slander. 
His letter sounds like a wail of grief. It was dated 
St. Petersburg, April 13, 1789. 

" My Lord — Having had the advantage to serve 
under your orders, and in your sight, I remember 
with particular satisfaction the kind promises and tes- 
timonies of your friendship, with which you have 
honored me. As I have served all my life for honor, I 
had no other motive for accepting the flattering invita- 
tion of her imperial majesty than a laudable ambition 
to distinguish myself in the service of a sovereign so 
magnanimous and illustrious ; for I never yet have 
bent the knee to self-interest, nor drawn my sword 
for hire. 

" A few days ago I thought myself one of the 
happiest men in the empire. Your highness had 



344 TAUh JONES. 

renewed to me your promise of friendship, and the 
empress had assigned me a command of a nature to 
occupy the most active and enterprising genius. 

" A bad woman has accused me of violating her 
daughter. If she had told the truth, I should have 
candor enough to own it, and would trust my honor, 
which is a thousand times dearer to me than my life, 
to the mercy of the empress. I declare, with the 
assurance becoming a military character, that I am 
innocent. Till that unhappy moment, I have en- 
joyed the pubHc esteem and the affection of all 
who knew me. Shall it be said that, in Russia, a 
wretched woman who eloped from her husband and 
family in the country, stole away her daughter^ lives 
here in a house of ill-fame, and leads a debauched 
and adulterous life, has found credit enough on a 
simple complaint, unsupported by any proof, to 
affect the honor of a general officer of reputation, 
who has merited and received the decorations of 
America, of France, and of this empire ? 

*' If I had been favored with the least intimation 
of a complaint of that nature having found its way 
to the sovereign, I know too well what belongs to 
delicacy, to have presented myself in the presence 
of the empress before my justification. 

" I thought that in every country, a man accused 
had a right to employ advocates, and to avail him- 



RETIREMENT AND DEATH. 345 

self of his friends for his justification. Judge, my 
prince, of my astonishment and distress of mind, 
when I yesterday was informed that the day before, 
the governor of the city had sent for my advocate, 
and forbidden him^ at his peril, or any other person^ to 
meddle with my cause, 

" I am innocent before God ! and my conscience 
knows no reproach. The complaint brought against 
me is an infamous He, and there is no circumstance 
that gives it even an air of probability. 

" I address myself to you with confidence, my 
prince, and am assured that the friendship you have 
to kindly promised me, will be immediately exerted 
in my favor ; and that you will not suffer the illus- 
trious sovereign of this great empire to be misled by 
the false insinuations and secret cabals of my hidden 
enemies. Your mind will find more true pleasure 
in pleading the cause of an innocent man whom you 
honor with your friendship, than can result from 
other victories equally glorious with that of Oczakow, 
which will always rank among the most brilliant of 
military achievements. If your highness will conde- 
scend to question Monsieur Crimpin,* (for he dare 
not now even speak to me), he can tell you many cir- 
cumstances which will elucidate my innocence. I 

* Monsieur Crimpin was the advocate whom he had first engaged. 

15* 



346 PAUL JONES. 

am, with profound respect, my lord, your highness's 
devoted and most obedient servant," etc., etc. 

The proof of the admiral's innocence of this atro- 
cious charge was soon made out beyond all possibil- 
ity of question. Count de Segur, the long-tried and 
disinterested friend, wrote an account of the affair. 
This document, which was perfectly conclusive, was 
published in all the leading papers of Europe, for the 
abominable slander had been spread far and wide. 
Justice to the memory of the admiral demands that 
this document should be given with but slight 
abridgment. 

" The American rear-admiral was favorably wel- 
comed at court ; often invited to dinner by the em- 
press, and received with distinction into the best 
society in the city. On a sudden, Catherine com- 
manded him to appear no more in her presence. He 
was informed that he was accused of an infamous 
crime ; of assaulting a young girl offourteen, and of 
grossly violating her. It was said that probably he 
would be tried by the Courts of Admiralty, in which 
there were many English officers who were strongly 
prejudiced against him. 

'' As soon as this order was known, every one 
abandoned the unhappy American. No one spoke 
to him. People avoided saluting him, and every 



RETIREMENT AND DEATH. 347 

door was shut against him. All those by whom but 
yesterday he had been eagerly welcomed, now fled 
from him as if he had been inflicted by a plague. 
No advocate would take charge of his cause, and at 
last even his servants would not continue in his ser- 
vice. And Paul Jones, whose exploits every one had 
so recently been so ready to proclaim, and whose 
friendship had been sought after, found himself alone, 
in the midst of an immense population. Petersburg, 
a great capital, became to him a desert. He was moved 
even to tears at my visit. 

" ' I was unwilling,' he said to me, shaking me by 
the hand, ' to knock at your door, and to expose 
myself to a fresh affront, which would have been 
more cutting than all the rest. I have braved death 
a thousand times, now I wish for it.' 

'' His appearance, his arms being laid upon the 
table, made me suspect some desperate intention. I 
said to him : 

" ' Resume your composure and your courage. 
Do you not know that human hfe, like the sea, has its 
storms, and that fortune is even more capricious than 
the winds? If, as I hope, you are innocent, brave 
this sudden tempest. If unhappily you are guilty, 
confess it to me with unreserved frankness, and I 
will do everything I can to snatch you by a sudden 
flight from the danger which threatens you.' 



348 PAUL JONES. 

'' He replied, * I am ready to take my most sol- 
emn oath, and upon my honor, that I am innocent, 
and a victim of the most infamous calumny. This 
is the truth. Some days ago a young girl came to 
me in the morning to ask me if I could give her some 
linen or lace to mend. She then indulged in some 
rather earnest and indecent allurements. Aston- 
ished at so much boldness in one of such few years, 
I felt compassion for her. I advised her not to enter 
upon so vile a career, gave her some money, and dis- 
missed her. But she was determined to remain. 
Impatient at this resistance, I took her by the hand 
and led her to the door. But at the instant when 
the door was opened, the little profligate tore her 
sleeves and neckerchief, raised great cries, com- 
plained that I had assaulted her, and threw herself 
into the arms of an old woman whom she called her 
mother, and who certainly was not brought there 
by chance.' 

" < Very well,' said I, ^but cannot you learn the 
names of these adventurers? ' 

" * The porter knows them,' he replied. ' Here 
are their names written down, but I do not know 
where they live. I was desirous of immediately pre- 
senting a memorial about this ridiculous affair, first 
to the minister and then to the empress. But I 
have been interdicted from access to both of them.' 



RETIREMENT AND DEATH. 349 

" * Give me the paper,' I said. * Resume your 
accustomed firmness. Be comforted. In a short 
time we shall meet again.' " 

The count returned home, and by the aid of some 
efficient agents soon unravelled the whole affair. It 
was proved, by evidence which no one could ques- 
tion, that the woman, Sophie Koltzwarthen, was one 
of the most infamous creatures, who had been long 
employed in carrying on a traffic in young girls, 
whom she passed off as her daughters. The count, 
having obtained all the necessary documents and 
attestations, hastened to show it to Paul Jones. Ex- 
ultingly he said to him, " You have nothing to fear. 
The wretches are unmasked. All that you need now 
do, is to send these proofs to the empress. She has 
directed, under very heavy penalties, that no one 
shall detain on the way any letters which may be 
addressed to her personally, and which may be sent 
to her by post." 

The admiral immediately wrote a letter to 
her majesty, under date of St. Petersburg, May 17, 
1789. After briefly recapitulating the circumstances 
under which he had been induced to enter into the 
service of the empress, the incidents in his campaign 
to the Black Sea, and his recall to the Baltic, he 
added : 

*' Such was my situation, when, upon the mere 



350 PAUL JONES. 

accusation of a crime, the very idea of which wounds 
my delicacy, I have found myself driven from court, 
deprived of the good opinion of your majesty, and 
forced to employ the time which I wished to devote 
to the defence of your empire, in cleansing from 
myself the stains with which calumny had covered 
me. Condescend to believe, madame, that if I had 
received the slightest hint that a complaint of such 
a nature had been made against me, and still more 
that it had come to your majesty's knowledge, I 
know to well what is owing to delicacy to have ven- 
tured to have appeared before you till I was com- 
pletely exculpated. 

" Understanding neither the laws, the language, 
nor the forms of justice of this country, I needed 
an advocate and obtained one. But whether from 
terror or intimidation he stopped short all at once, 
and durst not undertake my defence, though con- 
vinced of the justice of my cause. But truth may 
always venture to show itself alone and unsupported 
at the throne of your majesty. I have not hesitated 
to labor unaided for my own vindication. I have 
collected proofs. And if such details might appear 
under the eye of your majesty I would present them. 
But if your majesty will deign to order some person 
to examine them, it will be seen, by the report 
which will be made, that my crime is a fiction, in- 



RETIREMENT AND DEATH. 35 I 

vented by the cupidity of a wretched woman, whose 
malice has been countenanced, perhaps incited, by 
the malice of my numerous enemies. Her husband 
has himself certified and attested to her infamous 
conduct. His signature is in my hands, and the pas- 
tor Braun, of the district, has assured me that if the 
College of Justice will give him an order to this effect, 
he will obtain an attestation from the country peo- 
ple that the mother of the girl referred to is known 
among them as a wretch utterly unworthy of behef. 

" Take a soldier's word, madam e. Believe an offi- 
cer whom two great nations esteem, and who haabeen 
honored with flattering marks of their approbation 
of which your majesty will soon receive a direct 
proof from the United States.* I am innocent, and 
if I were guilty I would not hesitate to make a can- 
did avowal of my fault, and to commit my honor, 
which is a thousand times dearer to me than life, to 
the hands of your majesty." 

The admiral closed this letter with expressions of 
devotion to the service of the empress. He assured 
her of his readiness to serve her in any way in his 
power, but added '' that if for any reason he could 
not be employed again during the campaign, he 
might be permitted to return to France or America." 

The empress received this letter, examined the 

* He refers to the gold medal ordered to be struck by Congress. 



352 PAUL JONES. 

documents, and became fully convinced of his inno- 
cence. She inveighed bitterly against the authors 
of the calumny, recalled Paul Jones to court, and 
received him with even more than her usual kind- 
ness. But the admiral, having received blow after 
blow and finding no employment immediately before 
him, became weary of the country where he had 
endured so many humiliations. He consequently 
requested permission to retire. His request was 
granted. The empress admitted him to an audience 
of leave, wished him a pleasant voyage, and he left 
Russia forever. He bore with him letters of high 
commendation from the most distinguished men in 
the capital of Russia. He directed his steps first 
to Warsaw. Here he was received with the highest 
consideration by the titular king and his court. He 
spent two months in Warsaw, hospitably entertained 
by the nobility, and intensely occupied in preparing 
for the Empress of Russia a journal of his services, 
from the time he entered the navy of the United 
States to the campaign of the Black Sea. In a letter 
to the empress, which accompanied this document, he 
wrote, under date of Warsaw, Sept. 25, O. S. 1789. 

" I owe it to my reputation and to truth to ac- 
company this journal with an abridgment of the 
campaign of the Liman."^ If you will deign, madame, 

* It was near the mouth of the river Liman that all these naval 
battles were fought. 



RETIREMENT AND DEATH. 353 

to read it with some attention, you will observe how 
little I have deserved the mortifications which I 
have endured, and which the justice and goodness of 
your majesty can alone make me forget. As I 
never offended, in word or speech or thought, against 
the laws or usages of the strictest deHcacy, it would 
assuredly be most desirable for me to have the hap- 
piness of regaining, in spite of the malice of my ene- 
mies, the precious esteem of your majesty." 

At Warsaw, the admiral made the acquaintance 
of, and became the intimate friend of Kosciusko. 
On the second of November he left Warsaw for 
Vienna. Here again he was kindly received by those 
in the highest ranks of society. But in consequence 
of the sickness of the emperor, he was not favored 
with an audience. From Warsaw he proceeded to 
Amsterdam. Kosciusko was at that time deeply 
engaged in the disastrous conspiracy to Hberate 
Poland from the thraldom of Russia. Sweden 
was also at war with Russia. There can be no 
doubt that great efforts were made to enlist the 
wonderful energies of the •admiral, in favor of the 
two belligerents, against the empress. These efforts 
were necessarily secret. It is but a ghmpse we can 
get of them. We simply know that the admiral 
declined all such proffers. From Amsterdam he 
wrote, under date of December, 1789, to his firm 



354 PAUL JONES. 

friend President Washington. In that letter he 
writes : 

*' Count Segur and myself have frequently con- 
versed on subjects that regard America. And the 
most pleasing reflection of all has been the happy 
establishment of the new constitution, and that you 
are so deservedly placed at the head of the govern- 
ment, by the unanimous voice of America. Your 
name alone, sir, has established in Europe a confi- 
dence that was for some time before entirely wanting 
in American concerns ; and I am assured that the 
happy efforts of your administration are still more 
sensibly felt throughout the United States. This is 
more glorious for you than all the laurels that your 
sword so nobly won in support of the rights of 
human nature. In war your fame is immortal, as 
the hero of liberty. In peace you are her patron, 
and the firmest supporter of her rights. Your great- 
est admirers and even your best friends have now 
but one wish left them — that you may long enjoy 
health and your present happiness." 

From Amsterdam he went to Hamburg by way 
of Copenhagen. Toward the close of April, 1790, 
he crossed the channel to London. " Upon land- 
ing," he writes, " I escaped being murdered." After 
a short visit there he went to Paris. His health 
was feeble. Still he kept up an active correspond- 



RETIREMENT AND DEATH. 355 

ence with his numerous distinguished friends all 
over the continent. His mode of expressing himself, 
as the reader will have perceived, was peculiar. He 
was a man of singular frankness and transparency of 
character. He gave free utterance to his thoughts 
as they arose. In Paris he again enjoyed the friend- 
ship of Lafayette. Nothing special occurred during 
his residence in Paris. 

Early in June, his health began more rapidly to 
fail. He lost his appetite, and a dropsical affection 
swelled his legs and expanded his chest. His phy- 
sician at length warned him that his symptoms were 
alarming, and advised him to settle his worldly affairs. 
He sat in his chair as he dictated to the notary his 
will. After his friends had retired he rose from his 
chair, went into his bedroom, and probably feeling a 
httle faint threw himself with his face upon his bed, 
and his feet resting upon the floor. Soon after, the 
queen's physician arrived to visit the illustrious pa- 
tient. He was conducted into the bedroom, where 
the admiral was found dead. His disorder had ter- 
minated in dropsy of the breast. 

It was the evening of the 20th of July, 1789. 
The admiral had reached the age of but forty-five 
years. His funeral attracted a large concourse of 
the most distinguished of the residents in Paris. 



356 PAUL JONES. 

The National Assembly, then in session, passed the 
following resolve : 

" The National Assembly, desirous of honoring 
the memory of Paul Jones, Admiral of the United 
States of America, and to preserve by a memorable 
example, the equality of religious rights, decrees that 
twelve of its members shall assist at the funeral so- 
lemnities of a man who has so well served the cause 
of liberty." 

A funeral sermon was preached by M. Marson, a 
French Protestant clergyman. In this oration he 
said : 

" We have just returned to the earth the remains 
of an illustrious stranger ; one of the first champions 
of the liberty of America, of that liberty which so 
gloriously ushered in our own. And what more 
flattering homage can we offer the memory of Paul 
Jones than to swear on his tomb to live or to die 
free. Let neither tyrants nor their satellites ever 
pollute this sacred earth. May the ashes of the great 
man, too soon lost to humanity, enjoy here an undis- 
turbed repose. May his example teach posterity the 
efforts which noble souls are capable of making when 
stimulated by hatred to oppression. Identify your- 
self with the glory of Paul Jones, in imitating his 
contempt of danger, his devotion to his country, and 
the noble heroism which, after having astonished the 



RETIREMENT AND DEATH. 357 

present age, will continue to call forth the veneration 
of ages yet to come." 

Such was the career of this remarkable man. 
Such is a faithful record of what he said and wrote 
and did. And this record surely exhibits the cha- 
racter of a worthy and a noble man. He rose to 
distinction by his own energies. His achievements 
gave him world-wide renown. His character secured 
for him not only a cordial welcome in the palaces 
of kings and in the castles of nobles, but, that 
which is far higher praise, won for him the esteem 
and affection of Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, 
Morris, Lafayette, Count Segur, Count d'Estaing, 
and a host of others of the worthiest spirits ivi 
America and France. 

The following is a brief recapitulation of the ser- 
vices which, during his short life, he rendered his 
country. During the Revolution he fought twenty- 
three battles at sea, and was never vanquished. He 
made seven victorious- descents upon Great Britain 
and her colonies. He captured two ships of equal 
size with his own, and two of far superior force ; 
besides taking many store-ships and other smaller 
craft. He spread alarm throughout the whole island 
of Great Britain, compelling the government to for- 
tify all her ports. He also forced the British to 
desist from their atrocious system of pillaging and 



358 PAUL JONES. 

burning in America, and to exchange, as prisoners 
of war, the Americans whom they had captured and 
plunged into prison dungeons as ** traitors, pirates, 
and felons." 

The distinguished Matthew Carey of Philadel- 
phia, after examining the voluminous correspondence 
of Paul Jones, contained in the valuable biography 
compiled by Colonel John Henry Sherburne, wrote 
to the author : 

" I have read, with intense interest, your Life of 
John Paul Jones. And it must be regarded as a 
valuable national object, placing, as it does, in strong 
relief, the shining qualities of this hero, not only 
as a naval commander but as a profound politician. 
The latter quaHty appears clearly and distinctly in 
various parts of the correspondence, wherein are 
developed views of the proper poHcy of this country 
which are worthy of the first statesmen that sat in 
the Congress of 1774 and 1775 — men never exceeded 
in the annals of the world for sagacity, patriotism, 
and pubHc spirit. 

" No man has been the subject of more gross and 
shocking abuse, and none of those who have distin- 
guished themselves in the Revolution were so little 
known as he has been to the nation to whose service 
he devoted all the energies of his magnanimous soul. 
I confess that for one I always regarded Paul Jones 



RETIREMENT AND DEATH. 35g^ 

as very few degrees above a freebooter who, in the 
prospect of plunder was reckless of his life. I am 
now thoroughly undeceived, and consider him as 
deserving a conspicuous rank among the most illus- 
trous of those heroes and statesmen who not only 
formed a wreath around the brow of this country, 
but secured her a prouder destiny than ever fell to 
the lot of any other portion of mankind." 



THE END. 



PRINTED BY LANGE, LITTLE & CO., NEW YORK, 



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